Doctors conducted a heart transplant with the organ from a 29-year-old woman. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The family of a 29-year-old woman declared brain dead after a traffic accident has given others the gift of life – by allowing her organs to be donated to save others.

The move came because her younger brother died two months ago, even though he could have been saved if a donor was available.

So following the death of his sister last month, the family decided to help others by allowing her heart, kidney and corneas to be transplanted into patients in need.

After the traffic accident on February 9, the woman suffered severe brain trauma.

Accepting their daughter would not survive, her father, Ngô Văn Thu, and his wife, Nguyễn Thị Hà, decided to donate their daughter's organs to save the lives of other patients.

“I know that my daughter will smile and would have agreed to donate her organs to save others,” Thu said.

“Her five-year-old daughter will understand and be proud of her mother when she grows up.”

From the donated organs, for the first time in Việt Nam, doctors of the Việt Nam-Germany Hospital successfully performed a heart-kidney transplant for a 37-year-old man.

From the Central Highlands, he suffered from dilated myocardium, heart failure and severe arrhythmia, leading to end-stage kidney failure.

He has needed hemodialysis during the past six years and had regular emergency treatment at major cardiovascular centres in HCM City and Huế City.

The simultaneous heart-kidney transplant was conducted on February 15 and lasted 10 hours. After the transplant, his new heart and kidney have responded well.

He can sit up, eat, walk and talk without special supportive tools, and was soon allowed to return home.

Associate professor Nguyễn Quang Nghĩa, director of the Organ Transplant Centre under the Việt Nam-Germany Hospital, said that so far, the hospital had conducted 1,500 kidney transplants, 110 liver, 49 heart and six lung transplants.

Up to now, experts at the hospital had mastered organ transplant techniques at a high professional level, he said.

Kidney transplant only takes about two or three hours, and liver transplant takes four or five hours, approaching the time of other countries in the region and around the world.

Organ transplantation’s professional level in Việt Nam was equivalent to that of major organ transplant centres in the world, said Nghĩa. — VNS