M Natarajan, 74 year old husband of jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, was lucky to have got kidney and liver from a brain-dead accident patient in Thanjavur, who was flown to the same hospital where the leader was undergoing treatment and awaiting multi-organ transplant.

The doctors at the hospital carried out the complicated organ transplant in a seven and half hour long operation that began late on Tuesday night.

TTV Dinakaran, Natarajan’s nephew, called on his uncle at the hospital and later told media persons that he had successful liver and kidney transplant and was now recovering. The organs were harvested from a patient, an accident victim in Thanjavur, Karthick, a daily wager who had suffered head injuries in an accident. The Thanjavur general hospital advised against his discharge, as is normal in such cases, as he was to be transported to a multi-speciality hospital, sources said.

He was airlifted by Coimbatore-based Ganga air ambulance services that ferried the boy from Tiruchirapalli to Chennai in a night flying operation. The boy was taken to Tiruchirapalli by road in an ambulance. Sources in the ambulance service refrained from mentioning the amount of bill raised and as to who would pay it.

According to doctors at the Global hospital in Chennai, 74-year old Natarajan was stable after a seven and a half hour long multiple organ transplant operation, which began late on Tuesday night. Dinkaran, who called on the husband of Saikala at hospital, told media persons that doctors had told him that he was recovering.