Vande Bharat Express transports donor heart from Surat to Ahmedabad in record time
A donor heart was moved aboard a Vande Bharat Express from Surat to Ahmedabad, reaching the transplant centre in just over three and a half hours.
Mithun Swain, a 36-year-old migrant worker from Ganjam district, Odisha, became the first organ donor whose heart was shipped by rail in India after doctors declared him brain-dead following a sudden illness that left his left arm and leg immobile. His relatives agreed to donate his heart, liver and kidneys, with the latter organs traveling by road to the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre. Unfavourable weather prevented air transport of the heart, prompting the railways ministry and Gujarat authorities to employ the Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Capital Vande Bharat Express (train 20901).
The heart journeyed from Surat to Ahmedabad in two hours and thirty-eight minutes, and a coordinated police green corridor moved it from the station to the UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre within a total of 217 minutes. Officials hailed the operation as a milestone for the nation’s organ-transplant logistics.
Why it matters
It shows how rail transport can expedite critical organ delivery, improving transplant success rates.
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