At the University Hospital of Lviv National Medical University, a patient named Oksana is in a critical condition. Doctors report that the woman urgently needs a heart transplant.
Her life is currently being supported by an ECMO machine, which temporarily takes over the functions of the heart and lungs and gives doctors additional time. However, only a donor heart transplant can save the patient.
According to LNMU Vice-Rector Nataliia Matolinets, six organ transplants from deceased donors have already been carried out at the University Hospital this year. Each such operation has become a chance of life for a patient and the result of a difficult decision by the donor's family to help others at the moment of their own loss.
The hospital's medical team continues to fight for Oksana's life and stresses that the development of transplantation in Ukraine depends not only on specialists, but also on the support of society — understanding the importance of donation, trust in the medical system and the willingness to talk about posthumous donation within the family.
The University Hospital emphasises that the decision on posthumous donation is always extremely difficult and associated with great pain for loved ones, yet it is thanks to such decisions that other people get a chance to live. For professional advice and detailed information on donation at this institution, people are invited to contact the hospital's transplant coordinator via the hotline.
Doctors are calling on the public to spread information about the possibility of posthumous donation and its role in saving patients for whom organ transplantation is the only chance of recovery. Oksana is now waiting for such a chance.