In a remarkable display of medical coordination and speed, a donor heart was transported from Chandigarh to Delhi in just 1 hour and 55 minutes via multiple green corridors, enabling doctors to perform a successful heart transplant on a 39-year-old man from Meerut.
The patient, suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy with severe mitral valve leakage, had battled worsening breathing problems for the past four years. In the last six months alone, he required two ICU admissions in Meerut before being shifted to a private hospital in Delhi as his condition worsened in August.
Doctors stabilised him in the ICU with advanced medications for heart, blood pressure and kidney support, before registering him with the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) on August 9, 2025. A previous organ offer in Delhi had been rejected as unsuitable.
On the night of August 26, NOTTO alerted Sir Ganga Ram Hospital about a matching donor heart in Chandigarh. The hospital’s retrieval team promptly flew to Chandigarh, collected the organ, and returned with it on a commercial flight. Green corridors were created in Chandigarh city, at both airports, and across Delhi, ensuring the heart reached the hospital in under two hours and in optimal condition.
A team led by Dr. Sujay Shad, Senior Consultant & Director of Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, along with Dr. Himanshu Goel (Cardiac Surgeon), Dr. Maheshwari (Anaesthetist), and Dr. Aman Makhija (Cardiologist), was ready to perform the transplant. The patient, already on a heart-lung machine, underwent surgery in which his diseased heart was replaced. The new heart started functioning immediately.
Post-surgery, the patient’s recovery has been encouraging. He was removed from ventilator support within 18 hours and soon resumed normal meals and light exercise. Doctors remain optimistic about his long-term recovery.
“This transplant was made possible by the combined efforts of NOTTO, the retrieval and transplant teams, and the seamless green corridors across two states. The fact that the heart reached us in under two hours played a pivotal role in the success of this surgery,” said Dr. Shad.
