Indian Air Force saves veteran's life by deploying plane to transfer liver from Pune to Delhi

The Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a crucial mission to save the life of an armed forces veteran. In a post on X, the IAF said on Sunday (Feb 25) that its Dornier aircraft was activated on short notice carrying a team of doctors to retrieve a liver from Pune to Delhi on Friday night.

"An IAF Dornier aircraft was activated at short notice to airlift a team of doctors of Army Hospital (R&R), to retrieve a liver from Pune to Delhi during the night on 23 Feb 24," the IAF said.

"The subsequent transplant surgery helped save the life of a veteran," it added. The Army Hospital (Research and Referral) is located in the Delhi Cantonment area for the Indian armed forces where its personnel and their families get treatment.

The air force has taken part in several missions like this to save lives. On July 26 last year, a harvested human heart was airlifted from Nagpur to Pune on an IAF aircraft and later transplanted into a recipient admitted to the Army Institute of Cardio-Thoracic Sciences (AICTS) in western Maharashtra city.

According to a report by the news agency PTI, the live heart, retrieved from a woman declared brain dead, was successfully transplanted into the recipient, a male air warrior at the Pune-based AICTS, later in the day.

An official statement said that the organ was sent through a green corridor created by the civil administration before being transported to Pune, more than 700 km from Nagpur, on an IAF AN-32 aircraft in the “most expeditious” manner.

(With inputs from agencies)