Mumbai: Airport officials at Hyderabad had a unique problem at hand last week. An oversized plastic box containing a heart meant for transplant would not pass through the X-ray baggage scanner.
After much brainstorming, it was decided that the heart, placed in preservation solution in a sterile bag that was surrounded with ice cubes, would be removed in a tiffin box to complete the security formalities. The heart was later transplanted in a Chennai patient. Such incidents have prompted experts in the field of organ donation to demand standardization and regulations for airlifting of organs. Besides, there is also a growing demand for a price cap on what airlines can charge for flowing life-saving organs.
Currently, majority of the organs between cities are either transported by road or flown using commercial and charter planes. Problems such as size of boxes used to preserve organs, overhead cabins, whether or not to check-in the organ, etc, are some of the crucial questions that transplant centres often have to deal with. While, ferrying an organ using commercial airlines still remains feasible to an extent, the services of charter planes or air ambulances are still out of reach for a majority. As per industry standards, it can vary from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, depending on availability of flights and number of organs being transported.
11/08/15 Sumitra Deb Roy/Times of India
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After much brainstorming, it was decided that the heart, placed in preservation solution in a sterile bag that was surrounded with ice cubes, would be removed in a tiffin box to complete the security formalities. The heart was later transplanted in a Chennai patient. Such incidents have prompted experts in the field of organ donation to demand standardization and regulations for airlifting of organs. Besides, there is also a growing demand for a price cap on what airlines can charge for flowing life-saving organs.
Currently, majority of the organs between cities are either transported by road or flown using commercial and charter planes. Problems such as size of boxes used to preserve organs, overhead cabins, whether or not to check-in the organ, etc, are some of the crucial questions that transplant centres often have to deal with. While, ferrying an organ using commercial airlines still remains feasible to an extent, the services of charter planes or air ambulances are still out of reach for a majority. As per industry standards, it can vary from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, depending on availability of flights and number of organs being transported.
11/08/15 Sumitra Deb Roy/Times of India
