A Green Corridor helped transport a donor heart over nearly 20 kilometres from Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad to Fortis Hospital, Noida, in just 16 minutes, enabling a time-sensitive heart transplant. The operation followed an organ donation by a family in Chandigarh, with medical teams and authorities across Haryana, Ghaziabad and Noida coordinating the transfer.

The donor heart was retrieved from Command Hospital, Panchkula, Haryana, before being taken to Chandigarh Airport and flown to Hindon Airport. A suitable recipient had already been identified at Fortis Hospital, Noida, where the transplant team was preparing for the procedure while the heart was being transported. The hospital activated separate retrieval, clinical and administrative teams to manage the operation simultaneously.

After the aircraft arrived at Hindon Airport, the heart was immediately transferred to a waiting emergency ambulance. More than 100 police personnel were deployed along the route, with traffic teams in Ghaziabad and Noida coordinating the movement. An escort police vehicle and the Ghaziabad Control Room also supported the operation, allowing the ambulance to travel the 20-kilometre distance to Fortis Noida in 16 minutes.

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A Green Corridor is a specially coordinated traffic route that enables emergency vehicles to move with minimal delays. Traffic authorities manage intersections, signals and other road movements along a predetermined route. Such corridors are particularly important for organ transplantation because donated organs have limited preservation windows, making timely transportation critical to their viability.

For heart transplants, timing is especially important because the organ cannot remain outside the body for an extended period. The period during which a preserved heart remains outside the body is associated with the risk of ischaemic injury, making rapid retrieval, transportation and transplantation essential. In this case, the recipient was prepared at the Noida hospital while transportation arrangements were being completed, reducing delays once the heart arrived.

Airport coordination was also required to ensure the organ could be transferred quickly after landing. At Hindon Airport, hospital teams worked with airport security authorities and Air Force security officials to obtain permission for the ambulance to be stationed close to the airstrip. Fortis Hospital, Noida, said the operation required coordination between law enforcement, airport authorities and medical teams, while expressing gratitude to the donor family whose decision made the transplant possible.

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