Amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, a 27-year-old man in Tamil Nadu's Salem helped save the lives of two other people at MGM Healthcare in Chennai. The 27-year-old was admitted to a private hospital in Salem after a road accident, due to which he suffered a traumatic brain injury. Despite the best efforts of doctors, he was declared brain dead during the course of treatment. Following this, the family was counselled and a brain death certificate was approved, to donate his organs and save the lives of other people.
A team of experts in Salem retrieved his heart and lungs and a green corridor was established in Salem and Chennai to transport the organs. The organs were first airlifted from Salem and transported to Chennai in less than two hours, using a helicopter. Life-saving surgeries were performed on critically-ill patients and thanks to the organs that were donated, experts at MGM Healthcare managed to give a new lease of life to two people.
"Both the patients are stable and the surgeries were performed following all necessary COVID-19 protocols to avoid any infection. His remaining organs were dispatched to other hospitals. The hospital extends their gratitude to the deceased's family for the generous act of organ donation and hope that more people come forth to pledge their organs in the future to save lives," MGM Healthcare said in a statement.
TNM had recently reported about how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected organ transplants in India. Doctors said that the demand for organs had gone up and donors have become harder to come by, especially for lung and heart transplants, which can only be done from cadavers unlike liver and kidney transplants, which can be done from living as well as cadaveric donors.