At the First Medical Association of Lviv, doctors transplanted a kidney to 15-year-old Andrii from Kryvyi Rih from a deceased donor. The boy has lived since childhood with a number of serious diagnoses, but doctors are managing to improve his condition step by step.
Andrii was born with a heart defect. At the age of 5, he was diagnosed with a congenital brain pathology — Chiari malformation, and at 14 — chronic kidney failure. Because of this, calcium was being washed out of his body, his bones became very fragile, which led to a fracture of the femoral neck.
The boy was put on haemodialysis and risked becoming bedridden. To prevent this, specialists at St Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association used an innovative technology for bone fusion using stem cells. After surgery by orthopaedic trauma surgeons, Andrii was able to stand on his feet again, but he still urgently needed a kidney transplant.
His father, who is a serviceman and has multiple past injuries, was supposed to be the donor. During an examination at the First Medical Association of Lviv, the man was found to have cancer, so he could not become a donor. This was a heavy blow for the family.
Later, Andrii’s mother Nataliia received a phone call informing her that a kidney donor had been found, and she was given 20 minutes to get ready. The family reached Lviv from Kryvyi Rih in 12 hours, and Andrii was immediately taken to the operating theatre.
The kidney transplant from the deceased donor lasted about six hours and was successful. The boy is now feeling much better, and ahead of him are a consultation with neurosurgeons and brain surgery. Meanwhile, Andrii’s father is undergoing cancer treatment.
«This child is an example that even the most complex combination of diagnoses is not a sentence, if you set the right priorities and act as one team,» said the head of the transplant unit, Liliia Hrytskyv.