NASHIK: A kidney transplant patient from Jalgaon district received assistance from Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday night after she missed her flight to Mumbai. She was allowed on board the chartered plane that the Deputy Chief Minister travelled on.
"A woman, Sheetal Borde, was urgently called to Mumbai for a kidney transplant and needed to reach before midnight. After she missed her flight, she sought assistance from the Chief Minister Medical Assistance Cell to travel to Mumbai. The deputy chief minister, Eknath Shinde, who was travelling to Mumbai, facilitated her transportation in his chartered flight," said the collector of Jalgaon, Ayush Prasad.
The deputy chief minister, Shinde, was in Jalgaon on Friday late evening to attend the departure of Sant Muktai Palkhi from Muktainagar to Pandharpur as part of the Ashadhi Wari – a major religious pilgrimage during which people walk to Pandharpur from various parts of the state to reach there on Ashadhi Ekadashi. Since the programme got slightly delayed, by the time Shinde returned to the airport, the flying hours of the pilot and the co-pilot were exhausted, forcing them not to operate unless cleared for it.
"There were multiple options being discussed. The Deputy Chief Minister was ready to stay overnight in Jalgaon and travel by the flight in the early morning, or if there was urgency, a pilot from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar would have been arranged for," said the collector.
It was about the same time that the woman waiting for a kidney transplant got the call from a hospital in Mumbai to come down immediately.
She booked the flight but missed it, and hence she contacted the medical assistance cell seeking intervention to facilitate her transportation by road so that she could reach Mumbai before midnight, else the transplant would be given to another person waiting for the transplant.
"WRD minister Girish Mahajan, who was with the Deputy Chief Minister, got the information. After discussions, both decided to take the help of civil aviation and allow the pilots to fly the plane after the mandatory procedure, including the medical check-up, a prerequisite. So they spoke to the senior officials and got the permission," said the collector.
"Once done, the pilots were allowed to fly the plane, and this is how the woman boarded the chartered flight that took off at around 9.50 pm from Jalgaon airport, which has a night landing facility. The woman reached the hospital in time," the officer added.