AI-generated illustrationThe case
Tapas, 62, a retired government employee, had been under treatment at Fortis Hospital Noida since April 2026 for advanced heart disease — "50% of his heart was not working," Dr. Ajay Kaul told the Times of India. His condition required hospitalisation every two to three months, with some admissions lasting as long as 20 days. He was registered for a heart transplant in the first week of June 2026. Earlier attempts to find a working match had failed — the donor heart deteriorating each time shortly after retrieval, according to Dr. Gaurav Sharma, who heads the heart centre at Fortis Hospital and led the retrieval team.
The donor heart's journey
On the night of September 8, 2026, the team learned of a 34-year-old woman at Army Command Hospital, Panchkula, Haryana, who had been declared brain-dead — her heart healthy, and her family willing to donate her organs. A retrieval team under Dr. Gaurav Sharma reached Chandigarh airport around 5am on September 9. After retrieving the heart at the Army hospital, the team returned to Chandigarh airport by 1pm and flew it by private jet to Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad, landing around 2pm. Ghaziabad traffic police had received a green-corridor request from Fortis Noida around 10am and deployed more than a hundred personnel across the concerned police stations; Noida traffic police picked the team up at the Noida border. The final 20 km stretch from Hindon to Fortis Hospital, Noida Sector 62, was covered in 16 minutes, with the heart arriving at 2:30pm.
The surgery
Dr. Kaul's team was prepared in the operating room ahead of the heart's arrival. "We were prepared in the operating room and as soon as the donor heart arrived, we immediately removed the patient's heart and implanted the new one," Dr. Kaul said.
Outcome
"We successfully carried out the heart transplant and the patient is now in stable condition," Dr. Kaul told the Times of India.
A multi-agency effort
Dr. Gaurav Sharma noted this was the eighth such retrieval mission he had led in seven years at Fortis Delhi NCR, and that donor availability has improved as awareness of organ donation has grown — "earlier, it often took more than a year for people to find a donor." ADCP (Traffic, Ghaziabad) Varun Kumar Singh and DCP (Traffic, Noida) Abhay Mishra coordinated the police escort across both jurisdictions.
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Dr. Ajay Kaul, M.Ch
Chairman, Cardiac Sciences, Fortis Noida · 38 years · 25,000+ surgeries