CHENNAI: A 22-year-old from Chennai got a new lease of life at Gleneagles Global Health City with a successful heart transplant from a brain-dead patient in Tiruchy. The heart transplant was performed under the Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

The recipient was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure for over four years, and he has been on an organ registry waiting list since May 2023. The 5-hous transplant was performed on September 13 and the patient was discharged from hospital with no major complications on October 2, 2023.

The 30-year-old donor from Tiruchy suffered a brain injury from a road accident in his hometown and was admitted to the private hospital on September 12, 2023.

He was declared brain-dead following day and his family was counselled, and they consented to donate his organs. The alert for the heart and liver was sent to the Tamil Nadu organ registry which was later allocated to Gleneagles Global Health City as per standard registry protocol.

The team of doctors headed by Dr Govini Balasubramanian, Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Gleneagles Global Health City flew into Tiruchy on September 13, retrieved the heart, and headed back to Chennai in an hour.

Dr Govini Balasubramanian said, “In the face of end-stage heart failure the patient survival was hung by a thread, heart transplant emerged as the beacon of possibility.”