Human heart airlifted by IAF plane from Nagpur to Pune for transplant

Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], July 26 : A live human heart was airlifted from Nagpur to Pune in an Indian Air Force plane to be transplanted inside a recipient admitted to the Army Institute of Cardio-Thoracic Sciences, Air Force officials said on Wednesday.

"A live human heart was airlifted in an IAF AN-32 aircraft from Nagpur to Pune on Wednesday morning to be transplanted in a recipient admitted to the Army Institute of Cardio-Thoracic Sciences", IAF officials said.
The officials noted that the heart was moved through a green corridor created by the civil administration and flown to Pune in the most expeditious manner.
Meanwhile, the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) of Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh is promoting organ donation and transplantation for needy patients to increase the potential pool of donors, the Central government told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Various steps including community connect sessions, capacity building sessions, stakeholder meets, advocacy meets, felicitation of donor families have been taken by ROTTO, said Deputy Health Minister Bharati Pravin Pawar in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha member.
"ROTTO PGIMER is entrusted with the responsibility to coordinate with designated states and union territories including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and U.T. of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Chandigarh," said Pawar.
She also said that PGIMER Chandigarh is conducting research in various new domains including cancer diagnostic, neurological diseases with special emphasis on neuro-immunological disease, artificial intelligence and rare diseases linked to genetic disorders.