Doctors at Chợ Rẫy Hospital perform a surgery to receive donated organs on April 19. — Photo courtesy of Chợ Rẫy Hospital

HCM CITY — A 55-year-old woman who suffered brain death was transferred from the southern province of Đồng Tháp to Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City for heart, liver, kidneys, and corneas transplants and saved six patients, Chợ Rẫy Hospital announced on Tuesday.

On April 19, the woman was critically injured in a traffic accident in Đồng Tháp Province and admitted to emergency department at Tiền Giang General Hospital.

She was diagnosed with critical traumatic brain injury.

On the same day, the Organ Transplant Coordination Unit at Chợ Rẫy Hospital was informed about the organ donation and dispatched a team to Tiền Giang General Hospital to directly assess the situation after her family expressed their wish to donate organs.

As Tiền Giang General Hospital can not meet the technical requirements for the organ donation and transplantation process, the brain-dead patient was transferred to Chợ Rẫy Hospital for organ transplantation.

Doctors received one heart, one liver, two kidneys, and one cornea to transplant to six patients within 24 hours.

The donated liver was divided in half to be transplanted simultaneously to two patients at two different hospitals. The right liver lobe was transplanted to an adult male patient at Chợ Rẫy Hospital, while the left liver lobe was transferred to the University of Medical Centre in HCM City for transplantation to a child.

This is the first time a brain-dead patient from a provincial hospital has been transferred to Chợ Rẫy Hospital to retrieve the organs.

In most cases, the organ retrieval surgery is performed at the hospital where the brain-dead patient is hospitalised. The organs are then transported quickly using specialised equipment to another hospital for transplantation.

Three days after the organ donation from Đồng Tháp Province, Chợ Rẫy Hospital received another brain-dead organ donor: A 41-year-old male patient from the central province of Thanh Hoá who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a traffic accident.

His family donated his organs and tissues after he was declared brain-dead. The hospital received a heart, liver, two kidneys, and two corneas and successfully transplanted them to six patients.

To date, 11 patients are in stable health condition and discharged from the hospital. The remaining liver transplant case is expected to be discharged soon.

Dr. Phạm Thanh Việt, director of Chợ Rẫy Hospital, said that these organ transplants demonstrate the significance of organ donation and the close cooperation between hospitals, coordination centres, and patients’ families.

Many cases of end-stage liver failure, heart failure, or lung failure may lose their chance of survival if a suitable organ source is not available in time.

Therefore, the hospital hopes to build a network for detecting and connecting organ donation and transplantation in the southern and Central Highlands provinces in the future. — VNS