After 'heroic' heart transplant, patient breathes easy

Kochi, July 25: An autorickshaw driver was doing well here on Saturday after getting the heart of a brain dead man in Thiruvananthapuram in a meticulous four-hour "heroic effort". Starting from Friday afternoon, Jose Chacko Periyapuram, the cardio thoracic surgeon who performed the surgery, and his team first flew from Kochi to the state capital to remove the heart of Neelakanda Sharma. And with the brain dead advocate's heart, the doctors returned to the Kochi hospital, about 210 km away. The heart was flown with the help of the Indian Navy, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's Office told IANS. With authorities in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi making elaborate arrangements for the speedy transfer, traffic to and from the airport was brought to a standstill when the heart was ferried. It was "a heroic effort for all of us to have done the heart transplant surgery as time was very short for us", Periyapuram told the media on Saturday.