Doctors race against time to perform 4 heart, liver, and cornea transplants across Vietnam at the same time

On the morning of June 19, Hue Central Hospital announced that its doctors had successfully performed four simultaneous heart, liver, and cornea transplants to save patients being treated at the hospital.

Previously, on June 12, Hue Central Hospital received information about coordinating tissues and organs from a brain-dead organ donor. Immediately after that, Hue Central Hospital mobilized a team of doctors to go to Ho Chi Minh City to coordinate with Thong Nhat Hospital and 108 Military Central Hospital to perform the heart, liver and cornea removal from the organ donor.

Thanks to effective coordination, the process of organ retrieval and preservation was shortened, and all tissues and organs were transported to Hue City on the night of June 13 for timely transplantation to patients.

Doctors perform a heart transplant on a patient with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy.

Immediately afterwards, doctors at Hue Central Hospital performed a heart transplant from a donor into a patient with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy, who was unresponsive to medical treatment and had very low left ventricular function (LVEF 17-21%). This patient had suffered multiple cardiac arrests, which threatened his life. After the heart transplant, the donor heart started beating again in the patient's chest at 0:35 a.m. on June 14 after 5 hours and 30 minutes of cold ischemia.

The cornea transplant for the patient was performed in about an hour.

The right liver was transplanted to a pediatric patient (born in 2009) with congenital biliary atresia who underwent surgery at 2 months of age. This patient had secondary biliary cirrhosis with a MELD score >30, recurrent biliary tract infections 1-2 times/year, had to undergo 5 esophageal variceal ligations, and had a very fragile life. After the successful liver transplant, the liver was reperfused at 1:53 a.m. on June 14 with a cold ischemia time of 6 hours 45 minutes.

Heart transplant patients recover well after transplant.

Up to now, after 6 days of surgery, the 2 patients who received heart and liver transplants have stable hemodynamics, hematological and biochemical tests are within allowable limits, and their health is progressing well.

The two donor corneas were transplanted by doctors at Hue Central Hospital to two patients with corneal dystrophy, one of whom lived in complete darkness. Doctors removed the diseased corneas and replaced them with donated corneas for the two patients. After surgery, the two patients' vision gradually recovered, and they were monitored and regularly given anti-rejection drugs.

After 6 days of liver transplant, the patient was weaned off the ventilator and had stable hemodynamics.

As the person directly directing and coordinating organ and tissue transplants, Prof. Dr. Pham Nhu Hiep, Director of Hue Central Hospital, said that each organ transplant is a miraculous journey, where life is continued from love and compassion. Behind the success of each organ and tissue transplant is the effort in coordination and collaboration between the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center and the Hospitals, along with the efforts of doctors racing against time to transplant organs for patients.

“Organ transplantation is not only an achievement of modern medicine but also a beautiful symbol of compassion and the spirit of sharing in the community. We believe that with the spread of these humane values, there will be more and more hearts willing to register to donate organs, so that from pain, life can continue, and from loss, hope can be kindled,” shared Prof. Dr. Pham Nhu Hiep.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/bac-si-chay-dua-thoi-gian-thuc-hien-cung-luc-4-ca-gep-tim-gan-giac-mac-xuyen-viet-i772044/