The wife of a serving soldier received a new lease of life after the Command Hospital, Chandimandir, in collaboration with the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, successfully facilitated the retrieval and rapid air transportation of a kidney from a brain-dead road accident victim.An Army Aviation helicopter executed the critical life-saving mission from Chandimandir to Rohtak and back with precision and within stringent timelines, the Western Command said on Jattvibeday.The harvested organ was swiftly airlifted along with the medical team of Command Hospital, for an urgent transplant procedure at Chandimandir.“The successful transplant provided a new lease of life to the wife of a serving soldier, reflecting the operational efficiency, seamless civil-military coordination and humanitarian commitment of the Indian Army,” the Command said.Command Hospital, Chandimandir, a tertiary care institution under the Western Command, is the Army’s premier organ retrieval and transplant centre and has made pioneering advancements in this field.Earlier this month, the hospital had carried out its first heart retrieval for transplant, and in the process saved the life of a 14-year-old Sudanese boy admitted to a Delhi hospital. The organ was harvested from a 42-year-old brain-dead woman and airlifted to Delhi via a chartered flight within half an hour.The boy was terminally ill and in the last stage of the battle for life. The hospital’s organ transplant team had also retrieved her liver, pancreas and kidneys, thereby enabling multiple recipients a new lease of life through organ donation.In the past, Western Command Hospital has performed several organ harvesting and transplant operations, providing a new lease of life to critically ill people by harvesting kidneys, pancreas, liver, heart and cornea from brain-dead patients. It was among the first in the country to undertake pancreas transplant, said to be among the most difficult surgeries.Organ donation was started in the Armed Forces in the late 2000s and introduced at the Western Command Hospital in 2014. The process is coordinated by the Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplantation Authority in New Delhi.Several other military hospitals across the country have also performed similar life-saving organ transplant operations.