A 14-year-old boy with end-stage heart failure received a donor heart Friday night after a rapid, multi-agency effort moved the organ from Chandigarh to New Delhi. The patient is stable and recovering in the cardiac ICU at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

The donor was a 41-year-old woman, wife of a serving Indian Army officer, who was declared brain dead on May 2 at Command Hospital, Chandimandir, Panchkula, following a catastrophic brain hemorrhage two weeks prior. Her husband and two young daughters consented to organ donation.

Dr. Mukesh Goel, Senior Consultant in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Indraprastha Apollo, said the recipient had been hospitalized repeatedly over the past year. “He was registered with NOTTO two months ago. Heart transplant was the only option to save his life. He was admitted again a week ago with severe heart failure symptoms.”

*Race Against Cold Ischemic Time*

Once allocated by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization, the Apollo team faced a hard deadline: a donor heart must be implanted within four hours of retrieval. The team departed Delhi by chartered private jet at 1:30 PM on May 2. After retrieval at Command Hospital, they landed back in Delhi at 7:30 PM.

Delhi Traffic Police created a green corridor from the airport to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital under the supervision of Badarpur Traffic In-charge Sub Inspector Anil Kumar. The 20-minute transfer got the heart to the operating theater well within the critical window. The transplant was completed by midnight.

*Coordination Across States*

The operation involved Command Hospital Chandimandir, NOTTO, Haryana Traffic Police, Punjab Traffic Police, Airports Authority of India Chandigarh, Delhi Traffic Police, and the ACS private jet team. Apollo Hospital credited Colonel Anurag Garg of Command Hospital for leadership and coordination during the donation process.

The transplant team included surgeons Dr. Mukesh Goel and Dr. Gaurav Kumar, with anesthesia by Dr. Deepa Sarkar and Dr. Vikas Vikram Singh. The retrieval team also included Dr. Aravali, Dr. Sanjay, Dr. Karuna, Dr. Rinku, and transplant coordinator Divya. Support staff included Dr. Anjali.

The donor’s family decision enabled multiple life-saving transplants. For the 14-year-old recipient, the operation ended months of cyclical hospitalization and deterioration. He remains under close monitoring in the cardiac surgery ICU.

Apollo Hospital thanked the donor’s family, the Indian Army, Command Hospital, NOTTO, and all agencies involved, calling the effort a reminder of the impact of organ donation and coordinated action.