Nine transplants in 30 hours. Two hearts, a liver and six kidneys – that’s how many organs transplant specialists of the First Medical Association of Lviv and their colleagues transplanted in a little more than a day. All operations were performed from posthumous donors.
Donors were two men from Lviv Oblast and a woman from Bukovyna. They died from injuries incompatible with life, but thanks to the decision of relatives and doctors, they continued to live in other people. Almost a hundred medical workers joined together for this.
In the first “corridor of honor”, the medical workers of the Saint Panteleimon Hospital lined up at midnight. Over the next 12 hours, they transplanted two kidneys, a heart and a liver. The last transplant was performed on a 63-year-old man from Donetsk with the specialists of the National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology named after O. O. Shalimova.
Two more kidneys were transplanted at that time in nearby operating rooms. They were brought by part of the team of doctors from Chernivtsi, where they went to extract the organs. A chance for a full life was given to women with a severe form of kidney failure. Both of them were dependent on hemodialysis for years – artificial cleansing of the body from toxins.
And as soon as the teams of transplant specialists finished their work and left the operating rooms, it became known: another family agreed to donate at St. Luke’s Hospital. Their 31-year-old son died tragically, and they wanted his heart to continue beating. At dawn, medical workers took him to the operating room through the “corridor of honor”.
The kidneys were transplanted in nearby operating rooms, and the heart was transplanted in the St. Panteleimon Hospital. It was received by a 45-year-old man from Lviv, who would not have had a chance to live without this operation.
“Nine transplanted organs in such a short time is the result of very coordinated and team work. In order to save the lives of patients, almost a hundred people united. Thank you to all medical workers! These are the teams of the First Medical Association of Lviv – St. Panteleimon Hospital and St. Luke Hospital, the team of the National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology named after O. O. Shalimova and the team of the Chernivtsi Regional Clinical Hospital, the Ukrainian Transplant Coordination Center. Bright memory to the donors… Sincere condolences to the families and gratitude for the decision that gave nine people a chance at life. Transplantation in Lviv is the salvation of Ukrainians in Ukraine,” the First TMO notes.