New Delhi : Healthcare provider Apollo Hospital is the only hospital in India to have performed 534 organ transplants in less than eight months across the country, its chairman Prathap C. Reddy said on Aug 26.

'I am really happy to be here with you and to be making this announcement of being the only Indian hospital to have successfully performed 534 transplants,' Reddy told reporters here. According to Apollo Transplant Programmes data estimates, every three minutes a patient is added to the list of those needing a transplant.

'More than 200,000 Indians require organ transplantation annually, an estimated 20,000 liver transplants are required per year in India,' Group Medical Director of Apollo Hosptal Anupam Sibal said.

Encouraging organ donation, Reddy said: 'This is a noble act, to give life and hope to another - from ashes to life! We have always worked towards the cause of spreading awareness about organ donation so that the patients in need would benefit from it.'

Ranbir Singh, 58, the 500th case of liver transplant surgery at Apollo, and the first Cambodian 19-month-old-baby Sroy Kim to have a liver transplant were felicitated at the event by Reddy.