From August 12 to 18, 15 organ transplants were successfully performed at the Hanoi-based hospital. Prof., Dr. Tran Binh Giang, the hospital’s director, said that his hospital has achieved a miracle in performing 10 organ transplants, including one lung, two heart, three liver and four kidney transplants, from two brain-dead donors from Viet Duc Hospital and the Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital. In addition, the Hanoi hospital also performed five organ transplants from living donors, including one liver and four kidney transplants.
Thanks to the support and strong coordination from the National Centre for Organ Transplant Coordination, Cho Ray Hospital and Vietnam Airlines, as well as the outstanding efforts of the medical staff at Viet Duc Hospital, the transplants were successful with favourable results.
“This is a stressful, overnight working week for over 300 health workers. Doctors laid asleep everywhere around the operating rooms to be ready to support the multi-organ transplants. There were transplants progressing from the previous afternoon to 6 am the following day,” said Prof., Dr. Giang.
Another special thing in the multi-organ transplant procedure is that the hospital has taken and transplanted six organs at the same time for five patients, including two lungs, one heart, one liver and two kidneys (one each for two patients). It means that six organ transplants were performed at the same time, which was praised by Prof., Dr. Nguyen Tien Quyet, the former director of Viet Duc Hospital, saying "only a few hospitals in the world can do this.”
“This requires excellent organisation with the participation of a large number of highly qualified experts in many fields, and also the well-executed coordination from multiple specialised departments - something very difficult to implement in most of the organ transplant centres in the world. To date, all five organ transplant patients are in favourable conditions," Prof., Dr. Quyet said.
In particular, among the 15 transplants, Viet Duc Hospital performed a 15-hour surgery for its second lung transplant on a 38-year-old patient, just eight months after the first one carried out by the hospital’s staff on December 12 last year. The 38-year-old patient has suffered from end-stage chronic bronchitis - with an absolute lung transplantation indication to replace both lungs. The health of the patient after the lung transplant is progressing.
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Patients' health after transplantation progress well.
Also in the past week, at Cho Ray Hospital, organs were donated from a brain-dead person but the HCM City’s hospital only found suitable patients for kidney transplantations. Immediately after receiving the information, doctors coordinated smoothly to transport the heart and a liver in time for two patients with suitable indexes in Hanoi. Prof. Giang said that this is the third time the flow of organ donations has come from the South to the North at the right time, with the two organ donations to the Viet Duc Hospital causing doctors to race against the clock to not waste the donations.
"In all the 11 trans-Vietnam organ transplants to date, we are very proud that we have never once wasted any organ donations and the transplants were a success," said Prof., Dr. Trinh Hong Son, the vice director at Viet Duc Hospital.
Last week, the hospital also recorded the first living-donor liver transplant from a son to his father who had cirrhosis of the liver and was undergoing dialysis. Sharing about this case, doctor Ninh Van Khai, the deputy director of the Organ Transplantation Centre under the Viet Duc Hospital, said that the doctors had a week to thoroughly review the donor and recipient’s conditions, as well as carry out specialised consultation and schedule the transplant on Monday, August 12. The operation staff spent nearly 10 hours to take a part of the 34-year-old son's liver to transplant to his father. Shortly thereafter, the entire team wasted no time to join the second surgery, which was the liver transplant from a brain-dead donor transferred from Cho Ray Hospital.
Over the past 10 years, Viet Duc Hospital has received organs donated from 57 brain-dead donors. In which, doctors have conducted transplants on 25 hearts, two lungs, 54 livers and 99 kidneys, bringing about miraculous revivals for multiple patients.
