Mumbai: 38-year-old brain-dead woman’s heart transported in 17 minutes via green corridor

A 38-year-old woman’s gift of life offers hope to a critically ill patient as her heart from Mahaveer Jain Hospital, Thane, could reach Powai based Dr. L H Hiranandani Hospital in just 17 minutes, through a carefully coordinated green corridor.The donor, a 38-year-old woman, was declared brain-dead following a hypertensive cranial bleed. After confirmation by a board of medical experts, her family made the courageous decision to donate her organs—an act that turned personal loss into hope for others, Dr. L H Hiranandani Hospital has said.A specialised transplant retrieval team was immediately mobilised. With seamless coordination between hospital teams and the Traffic Police Department, a green corridor was created, ensuring uninterrupted and swift transport of the donor heart. The heart left Mahavir Hospital at 5:00 PM and reached Dr. L H Hiranandani Hospital at 5:17 PM.As per ZTCC norms, it was allocated to a 60-year-old male patient suffering from end-stage heart failure. The transplant surgery is currently underway.Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sameer Kulkarni, CEO, Dr. L H Hiranandani Hospital, said,“India has more than 80,000 plus patients waiting for organ transplants, yet our organ donation rate remains below one donor per million population. While over 18,000 plus organ transplants were performed in 2024—the highest ever recorded in the country—the demand still far exceeds availability.Organ donation is important because it gives people a second chance at life—sometimes even a first real one. For someone waiting for a heart, kidney, liver, or lungs, an organ transplant isn’t optional; it’s the only way to survive. One donor can save up to eight lives and improve many more through tissue donation. That’s a huge impact from a single, selfless decision.