In a brave medical feat, the Kerala government used a rented chopper to airlift a live heart of a brain dead patient from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi amid lockdown.
The heart of the Thiruvananthapuram resident was reportedly given to a 49-year-old woman patient from Kothamangalam at the Lissie Hospital in Ernakulam.
According to an ANI report, the 50-year-old donor was declared brain-dead at the KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the humanitarian act of the family of Thiruvananthapuram resident Laly Gopakumar to donate her heart, kidney and eyes was a brave move.?
"Her heart, kidney and eyes were donated. It was a brave move on behalf of the family during the time of immense grief. The heart was to be taken to the Lissy hospital at Ernakulam. We provided the helicopter free of cost," said?Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
"When such emergencies come up, we will use the helicopter," he told reporters.
The state government decided to use the chopper as an air ambulance free-of-cost to transport the vital organ as there are major traffic restrictions at district borders.?
?The helicopter made the journey in about 40 minutes to Ernakulam, after which the heart was transferred to an ambulance and taken to the hospital. The renting of the chopper earlier this year by the Left government from Pawan Hans for a monthly tariff of Rs 1.44 crore had drawn flak from the Opposition parties.
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