Ambulance with harvested lungs meets with accident, swift action saves patient

An ambulance carrying harvested lungs from a hospital in Maharashtrarsquos Pune met with an accident on its way to the city airportHowever quick action by a surgeon and his medical team saved the life of a patient in Chennai where the lung transplant surgery was successfully performed hours laterThe incident occurred in Pimpri Chinchwad township near Pune in Maharashtra on Monday News wire PTI reportedDr Sanjeev Jadhav a noted heart and lung transplant surgeon and his medical team said he suffered injuries in the accident but performed the lung transplant surgery on the 26yearold patient in the Tamil Nadu capitalDr Jadhav the chief cardiothoracic surgeon at Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai said that after their ambulance met with an accident due to a suspected tyre burst on Harris Bridge in Pimpri Chinchwad he did not waste time and got into another vehicle that was trailing the ambulance They reached the Pune airport with the harvested lung where a chartered plane was waiting to fly to Chennai he saidThe lungs of a 19yearold man who had died of suicide was retrieved at the D Y Patil Hospital in Pimpri Chinchwad on Monday The organ was scheduled to be transported to Chennaibased Apollo Hospital where a patient was supposed to undergo the lung transplant procedureThe viability of the retrieved organ is generally six hours and within that period the organ transplant must take place so it was paramount to transport the organ to Chennai for transplant surgery on the patient he saidAlso read Maharashtra Scrap dealer booked for illegally storing hazardous industrial waste in Thanes BhiwandiAfter harvesting the lung we left the D Y Patil Hospital for the Pune airport where a chartered plane was waiting to go to Chennai While we were on the way our ambulance met with an accident around 5 pm on Monday possibly due to a tyre burst he saidThe impact of the accident was very high as the front part of the ambulance got badly mangled after it hit a bridge railing and the oxygen cylinder got flung outside he saidDr Jadhav said he suffered injuries on his head hands and knee while other members of his team were also hurtWe first rushed the driver to D Y Patil Hospital as he was also injured and engaged another vehicle of the hospital which was trailing us and reached the airport by 6 pm as transporting the organ in stipulated time was important he recalledWhen we reached Apollo Hospital in Chennai the surgery was already undergoing and by late evening the lung transplant surgery was also performed successfully We are happy that the patient got a new lease of life due to the lung transplant he added With inputs from PTI