1. 36 GovernanceNow | August 1-15, 2014
Shivani Gaurav Chaturvedi
CHENNAI: Mumbai resident Hvovi Mi-
nocherchomji is a lucky young woman.
On June 16, the 21-year-old’s mother,
Amaity Aspy Minocherchomji, couldn’t
stop thanking and blessing all the peo-
ple who helped save her daughter’s
life. She thanked cardiac surgeon Dr
KR Balakrishnan and blessed the soul
of the donor who saved her daughter’s
life in his death. Above all, she had the
Chennai police to thank for quickly
transporting the harvested heart from
government general hospital in Park
Town to Fortis Malar in Adyar through
their Green Corridor.
Chennai police takes the gratitude in
they have achieved the feat. The Tamil
Nadu Organ Transplant Programme
was started in 2008, and ever since the
Green Corridor has played a part in 75
successful heart transplantations in
major hospitals of Chennai.
-
port a heart from Apollo Hospital, Tey-
nampet, Chennai (South), to Frontier
Lifeline Hospital in Mogappair, Chen-
nai (West), in 11 minutes, as against 45
minutes it normally takes to cover the
distance between these two hospitals.
Since then, all it takes is a phone call
to the deputy commissioner of police
So what is a Green Corridor? Does it
mean all roads are blocked for gener-
al commuters when an organ is trans-
ported? “No, not this way,” said a smil-
-
completely. We just make the convoy
(pilot car, ambulance and a police jeep)
move non-stop from one end to the oth-
er. There is minimal disturbance to the
harvested heart reaches the recipient
hospital in the quickest time by taking
the shortest route. We also make sure
that minimum inconvenience is caused
to other commuters,” he said, adding,
had this scheme caused major incon-
venience to commuters, people would
have made a hue and cry about it.
For Sivanandan, who took charge as
takes priority. He monitors the corri-
dor most of the time, ensuring safe and
speedy passage for the organ from one
hospital to another. Once a hospital
for transportation of the organ, the
DCP needs to take a go-ahead from his
most cases, the reaction time is barely
one hour. “That one hour is very cru-
cial for us,” said Sivanandan while
showing a video-recording of one such
organ transportation. The recording is
done by police to monitor the process.
Once a demand comes, Sivanandan
determines the route for transporting
the organ. The police control room is
informed and a police vehicle is pro-
police personnel are assigned to go in
the vehicle along with the ambulance.
They keep coordinating with other
well, so my jeep trails the pilot car and
ambulance,” he said.
-
ployed at junctions and patrol vehi-
cles are deployed on the route at every
other personnel on duty are sensitised
about importance of the situation. A
police team is deployed at both hos-
pitals. “We remain in touch with both
teams. So right from the time the heart
is harvested till it reaches the recipient
hospital, our team ensures that trans-
portation is done as fast as possible,”
Sivanandan said. When the convoy
moves, we keep the doctors informed.
The doctors (at the recipient hospital)
ensure an elevator is kept exclusively
keep updating the team of doctors
about how long it will take for the or-
gan to reach. Only when the organ
reaches the hospital can we relax.”
Everything, the DCP said, has to be
done in that one hour. “It is a challenge
for us to keep travel time at a mini-
mum, especially during peak hours
when key arterial roads are usual-
ly chock-a-block. But as I understood
from a doctor, sooner the heart trans-
plant takes place higher the chances of
success,” he added.
Chennai police commissioner
people politics policy performance
All Heart
Moral police on a mission
Chennai police sets the bar high with its initiative of Green Corridor to ensure smooth and
speedy transfer of human organs from one hospital to another for transplant surgery
What is organ harvesting?
Organ harvesting is a surgical procedure
for removing organs or tissues for reuse,
such as in organ transplantation. The
first step of organ harvesting is to check
the health condition of the organ. Organs
cannot be harvested after the heart has
stopped for a long duration. Thus, a brain-
dead donor is preferred, but only a small
percentage of deaths are brain deaths.
Therefore, a majority of human organs are
sourced after cardiac deaths.

2. 37www.GovernanceNow.com
S George said, “The scheme is a proac-
tive approach of the police. We are do-
ing it on humanitarian grounds. By the
end of the day we get satisfaction.”
Based on the success of the Chen-
, was
made on a real-life story. Later, It was
remade in Tamil as Chennaiyil Oru
Naal (‘A day in Chennai’).
One such incident on June 16 made
its way to national headlines. Min-
ocherchomji, a BCom student from
of the heart (dilated cardiomyopathy)
and was admitted to Fortis Malar hos-
pital in Adyar area of Chennai. The
doctors ruled out all other cures and
decided to go for a heart transplant.
Soon, a donor match was found in the
government general hospital located
12 km away.
With the coordination between sur-
geons of the two hospitals and the city
-
ported the heart from the govern-
ment hospital to Fortis Malar in less
than 14 minutes by creating a Green
Corridor. As soon as the heart was
brought, the transplant began and in a
short time a new heart was beating for
Minocherchomji.
A relentless Green Corridor team
has since then assisted in transporting
four more hearts.
Dhanraj, a Green Corridor coordi-
nator at one of Chennai’s private hos-
pitals, cast his mind back to Decem-
ber 16, 2012 when they succeeded in
transporting a heart from a hospital in
Vellore district (137 km from Chennai)
to the state capital. They got the har-
vested organ to the transplant centre
in one-and-a-half hours. Given the vol-
two-and-a-half hours, or even three
hours at times, to cover the distance.
But the Green Corridor made it possi-
ble to help save a life.
“It was around 5 pm that day (De-
cember 15, 2012) when we learnt that
we had to go to Vellore – a surgery was
planned for heart transplant,” Dhan-
raj said. “We reached Vellore hospital
around midnight, when the harvesting
process started. We intimated this to
Tamil Nadu police, who coordinated
with us over phone. We had to leave
for Chennai at 07.05 am the following
early in the morning and told him that
we would cross the area. I had no oth-
er details – I didn’t know what time
we would cross which area and which
route we would take.
“The DCP told me he had taken care
were already on the route. The mo-
ment we started from Vellore hospital
police in front of our ambulance to
to follow the car all the way to the hos-
were turned green... the entire system
was so well organised.
“There was a change over near Kan-
cheepuram-Vellore toll-gate – one po-
lice jeep left and another joined us. The
roads were busy since Sunday mass-
es were being held at churches near
Chennai. But nothing hampered our
ambulance’s movement. We reached
the recipient hospital well in time and
handed over the heart. The operation
began on time and a life was saved.”
L Sathish, senior Green Corridor
coordinator of Fortis Malar, said: “We
have planned airlifting for transport-
ing vital organs. If there is an urgent
case out of Chennai and the patient is
willing to bear the cost, we will be able
to facilitate the transfer.”
Recently, Sathish said, he received
a message from the government that
a heart was available at a hospital in
Trichy, but he had to say no to trans-
porting the organ to Chennai as the dis-
tance between the two cities is 324 km.
A human heart can only be preserved
for up to 4 hours. Air ambulance, he
said, is not available everywhere. “We
get it from Hyderabad or Mumbai.”
Fortis Malar’s Dr Balakrishnan add-
ed, “When we get information about
the availability of an organ we have
to make arrangements in a very short
time. We are looking at the possibility
of having a dedicated helicopter. We
are working out the logistics and have
spoken to multiple agencies. We would
get the facility of airlifting in the next
couple of months.”
shivani@governancenow.com
The scheme is a proactive
approach of the police. We do
it on humanitarian grounds.
By the end of the day
we get satisfaction.
S George
Chennai police commissioner
We have planned airlifting for
transporting vital organs. If
the patient is willing to
bear the cost, we can
facilitate the transfer.
L Sathish, Senior Green Corridor
coordinator, Fortis Malar