In a corridor of hope, no margin of error as every second counts
RAPID TRANSIT Cops have often arranged corridors for uninterrupted passage of vital organs headed for transplantations
NEW DELHI: His seat belt tightly strapped to his body and his hands firmly on the steering wheel, Jai Kumar looks tense as he waits in a Maruti Ertiga at the Indira Gandhi International airport. Today, a man’s life depends on his driving skills -- he has to transport a beating heart from the airport to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where a transplant is scheduled in an hour.
The Delhi Traffic Police have arranged a ‘green corridor’ — a special route that will give Kumar an uninterrupted passage during the peak traffic hour in the morning. But still, there is no margin of error.
“I have driven in a green corridor once before, but I cannot get rid of the fear of getting stuck in a traffic jam,”sayskumar. Theconversation is cut short midway as a doctor carrying a heart in an organ preservation box hurriedly emerges from the airport and paces towards the waiting vehicle.
The route is not very different from a VIP movement corridor — a familiar irritant in Delhi — but causes barely five minutes of inconvenience to other motorists along the route. Escorted by three police vans and four motorcycles – sirens blaring constantly and traffic officers on the way frantically waving aside obstructing vehicles — the vehicle hits speeds of up to 100km per hour to cover a 14km journey in 12 minutes.
In the end, a patient undergoes a successful heart transplant.
This is no longer a rare occurrence in the National Capital Region (NCR). What began with a celebrated 32km journey in 29 minutes from a Gurgaon hospital to one in south Delhi’s Okhla in January 2015 has now become a regular way of saving lives.
Since January 2017, traffic police have arranged 44 green corridors in Delhi at an average of over two such trips every month. “On each occasion, a life was saved,” says Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police (Delhi Traffic Police), proud of the fact that every green corridor has been managed successfully.
Kumar says that never has a request for a green corridor been turned down. “We can arrange green corridors within 30 minutes of intimation. There is no margin for error,” says Kumar.
These special corridors are necessary to transport organs such as hearts, livers, kidneys or eyes after harvesting them from a dying or brain-dead person to a patient in another hospital.
Time is of utmost importance in these transplants. A heart, for example, needs to be transplanted within four hours — the earlier the better, to improve the chances of success.
“It takes six-seven minutes to harvest a heart. Another twothree minutes are lost in placing the organ in a bag and rushing it to the ambulance. Transplanting the heart into the receiver’s body takes 40-60 minutes. We have three hours for transporting the heart from one hospital to another, so we focus on saving time there,” says Dr Kewal Krishan, director of heart transplants and ventricular assist devices at Max Super Speciality hospital.
Drzsmeharwal,directorofcardiovascular surgery at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, says the timingoftheambulanceweighson his mind as he prepares to transplanttheheartinanewbody.“iam relieved only after the heart actually beats inside the body after an hourorsoafterthetransplant,but it is the movement of the organ from one hospital to another that occupiesmyminduntiltheheartis handed over to me,” he says.
Every hospital with a facility to carry out a transplant has a dedicated team tasked with reducing this time. The organ could be moved from one hospital to another within in a city or could be intercity.
Saurabh Chaturvedi, who manages these tasks for Fortis Hospital, says he has easy access to Delhi’s top traffic police officers. He has had the traffic police arrange a green corridor by just intimating them through Whatsapp. “I have never encountered red-tapism,” Chaturvedi says.
Police say they finalise a route the moment they are alerted. “We look for the shortest possible route, but have two other routes as backup. We then consult the traffic inspectors on all the three routes to know the status of traffic,” says joint commissioner Kumar. Thereafter, cranes are stationed on all the three routes to tow away other vehicles that may break down on the path.
The next step is to rope in traffic officers at all the junctions along the three routes. “At least three officers are deployed at every traffic junction on the three chosen routes,” says Kumar. Through the wireless system, the traffic inspectors accompanying the organ constantly relay the live location of the vehicle carrying the organ.
Unlike VIP routes, an ambulance in a green corridor moves alongside public vehicles. When the ambulance is supposed to pass through a junction, the police switch to manually managing the traffic signals. “We manually stop the traffic on perpendicular roads and provide a free passage for the ambulance along the entire route. So disruptions are never for more than five minutes at any junction,” says Kumar.
The cavalcade includes the ambulance or a Special Utility Vehicle (SUV) carrying the organ, three police vans and four motorcycles. One van sanitises the route less than five minutes before the ambulance is to pass through. The other police vehicles accompany the ambulance to prevent vehicles from venturing into the ambulance’s lane.
The ambulances — which can hit speeds of up to 120kmph—usually travel on the right lane which is cleared seconds in advance by the police vehicles ahead.
Alkesh Kumar, an ambulance driver who has driven three such trips, says his only focus is on following the police van. “There is no need to look at the speedometer, but we often cross the 100 kmph speed mark,” says Alkesh.
There were occasions when Alkesh had his heart in his mouth. “I once remember getting stuck in Ber Sarai (south Delhi) for two-three minutes. I feared we would lose a life, but the police miraculously cleared the way,” recounts Alkesh.
The police vans guiding the ambulance are driven by some of the most skilled drivers in traffic police. “I can negotiate a sharp turn at the speed of 70kmph. The instruction for me is simple —
A HEART, FOR EXAMPLE, NEEDS TO BE TRANSPLANTED WITHIN FOUR HOURS — THE EARLIER THE BETTER, TO IMPROVE THE CHANCES
been featuring iconic trees of Delhi, underscoring their importance in the life of the city. The series was launched on June 26, when the plan to axe 14,000 trees for redeveloping government housing projects in south Delhi made headlines. On July 4, the Delhi High Court restrained authorities from felling the trees.