A patient recovers after receiving an organ from K. (Photo courtesy of the hospital) “This is the 100th multi-organ transplant from a brain-dead donor at VietnamDuc University Hospital, also the largest amount of tissue and organs that havebeen donated," said he.
"We would like to express our deep gratitude to the patients who receivedorgans, from the doctors, the medical staff doing the organ donation work tothe families of those who donated their organs for life. This is a noblegesture and a humane action that needs to be spread," said Prof. Giang.
The donor was a brain-dead patient, named D.M.K, 32, living in Bac Giang province.
On March 6, K was in a traffic accident and was urgently transported to thehospital due to his critical condition. Upon hearing the doctor's diagnosis,K's spouse and sibling were stunned. The medical professionals proposed organdonation after brain death, which K's family deliberated on and ultimatelyconsented to. Despite the hospital staff's tireless efforts in administeringintensive treatment and resuscitation for one day, K's family did not witness amiracle and ultimately lost their loved one.
The Organ Transplant Coordination Centre's Director, Prof. Dr Nguyen Quang Nghia,stated that a major surgery was performed at approximately 2:30pm on March 7,where the brain-dead patient generously donated their heart, liver, twokidneys, four blood vessels, 14 tendons, and two cartilages.
Utilising these organs, the hospital successfully conducted a heart transplantfor a 53-year-old woman with end-stage heart failure in Bac Giang province, aliver transplant for a 33-year-old man with biliary cysts in Ninh Binh province,and a kidney transplant for a 42-year-old man with end-stage chronic renalfailure in Hai Phong city. The remaining kidney was transplanted to a48-year-old male patient also located in Hai Phong city, as reported by Prof.Nghia.
This marks the ninth instance where a brain-dead patient from Bac Giang haschosen to donate their organs, solidifying its position as the leading provincein Vietnam for the highest number of organ donors after brain death.
Since the first organ and tissue donation from a brain-deadpatient in 2010, there have been 100 families who have agreed to donate theirloved one's organs when suffering from traumatic or other diseases at thehospital. From 100 brain-dead donors, Viet Duc University Hospital’s doctorshave successfully performed 50 heart, 83 liver, 157 kidney, six lungtransplants and many other tissue transplants.
According to statistics from the National Coordination Centre for Human OrganTransplantation, 170,000 people nationwide have registered to donate organs andtissues. Nationally, in the past 13 years, there have been about 150 cases ofbrain death from organ donation, this is a very small number compared to thenumber of brain-dead people statistically at medical facilities nationwide.
According to Prof. Giang, the biggest challenge of transplants in Vietnam isnot the technical difficulty, but the scarcity of sources of organs andtissues.
Currently, 95% of organ transplants in the country were conducted from livingdonors, and only 5% were from brain-dead donors.
“The demand for organ transplants is huge in Vietnam. In addition to Viet DucUniversity Hospital, only 50 organ transplants have been performed in othermedical facilities, bringing the country’s total number of cases to nearly 150,a very modest number. There are many patients that have died and can't waituntil they have organs for transplant,” said Prof. Giang.
Over the past 30 years, Vietnam has had more than 6,500 successful organtransplants, including more than 6,000 kidneys, 384 liver and 59 hearttransplants. Vietnam currently has 16 kidneys, five livers and three hearttransplant facilities./.
VNA
