Kochi, July 26 (IANS): A 46-year-old Kerala autorickshaw driver, who underwent heart transplant surgery here on Friday, was recovering well and will be taken off the ventilator on Monday, a doctor said on Sunday.

Jose Chacko Periyapuram, the cardio thoracic surgeon who performed the surgery, said patient A. Mathew would be "taken off the ventilator tomorrow (Monday)".

"He is doing fine now and tomorrow onwards we will be able to speak to him and he will be given fluids," said Periyapuram.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Sunday visited the hospital.

"This became a reality because of the team work of so many people, who worked for this to become a reality," Chandy told Periyapuram's medical team.

The surgery was done as part of the Kerala government's organ donation programme. After the success of this surgery, the state government announced that it would go forward with this new programme with more vigour.

On Friday, Periyapuram's team flew from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram to remove the heart of a brain-dead man named Neelakanda Sharma.

With the heart, the doctors returned to the Kochi hospital, about 210 km away. The heart was flown with the help of the Indian Navy.