Nepali national Durga Kami, 22, received a new lease of life on December 22 after a heart transplant at General Hospital in Ernakulam. This surgery made the hospital the first district hospital in India to perform a heart transplant, officials said. The transplant was possible only after judicial intervention cleared legal hurdles. The law prioritizes Indian nationals for donor hearts, but Durga Kami, also known as Arpana, was on the super-urgent transplant list due to her critical condition. The donor heart came from 46-year-old S. Shibu, a Kollam native declared brain-dead in Thiruvananthapuram. An eight-member doctor team flew to Thiruvananthapuram to retrieve the heart. The surgery started at 11 a.m. and went beyond 1 p.m., as multiple organs were harvested. The heart was airlifted to Kochi and reached Ernakulam by 3:15 p.m. Durga was admitted the night before to prepare for transplant. Since blood and HLA matching succeeded, doctors awaited the heart’s viability. Shibu was on ventilator support for seven days after a road accident. Besides the heart, his kidneys, cornea, liver, and skin will serve other patients. The organs were sent to various hospitals: kidneys to Government Medical College and Travancore Medical College, cornea to the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, and liver to a private hospital. Dr. Shahirsha, Medical Superintendent at General Hospital, confirmed these donations. Durga Kami’s surgery marks a landmark event showing hope for more district hospitals to perform advanced transplants.