Gujarat: Vande Bharat transports live donor heart from Surat to Ahmedabad for third time

Ahmedabad: A live donor heart was transported from Surat to Ahmedabad aboard a Vande Bharat Express, marking the third time the semi-high-speed train has been used to facilitate the movement of a heart for transplantation.

The heart was carried on Train No. 20901, the Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Capital Vande Bharat Express, which departed from Surat on Sunday. It was brought from New Civil Hospital in Surat and safely loaded into coach C-12 at Surat railway station.

On arrival at Ahmedabad railway station, a green corridor was created on Platform number 1 to ensure that the organ reached the U.N. Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre in the shortest possible time.

Railway commercial department staff, personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP), and state police officials coordinated the transfer.

The heart will be transplanted by the specialist medical team at the U.N. Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre in Ahmedabad.

Ahmedabad Divisional Railway Manager Ved Prakash said, "This was the third occasion on which the Vande Bharat Express had been used for the swift and safe transportation of a live heart."

The movement of donor organs is time-sensitive, as a heart must be transplanted within a prescribed period after retrieval.

The use of a scheduled train service is intended to reduce transportation time and ensure that the organ reaches the recipient hospital within the required window.

Western Railway said it had coordinated with the hospitals concerned, the state police, medical teams and railway officials and staff to facilitate the transportation.

The operation involved creating a green corridor at Ahmedabad station and ensuring a quick transfer from the platform to the hospital, where the transplant procedure is to be carried out.

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