43-year-old Quang Nam patient revived thanks to heart of donor from Hanoi
On July 30, Hue Central Hospital announced that a 43-year-old patient PTT (Quang Nam) who had just received a heart transplant is gradually recovering. This is the 12th heart transplant from an organ donated by an elderly person in Hanoi.
Previously, on July 17, immediately after receiving information about organ donation from the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center with a brain-dead donor at Viet Duc Hospital (Hanoi), Professor, Dr. Pham Nhu Hiep, Director of Hue Central Hospital immediately activated the organ coordination team and promptly sent 3 doctors to coordinate with Viet Duc Hospital and the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center to receive the organ.
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According to organ coordination information, the donor is a 65-year-old female patient. This is an elderly and underweight donor, so selecting a heart patient will be difficult due to the high risks of transplantation. Priority will only be given to emergency transplant cases or patients with end-stage severe heart failure who agree to receive a heart from an elderly donor.
In the waiting list for a heart transplant on the system of the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center of Hue Central Hospital, the most suitable patient is a 43-year-old PTT patient with very severe heart failure, poor response to medical treatment, very low heart function LVEF 14%, and a very high mortality prognosis.
After explaining to the patient and family about the risks and the donor heart from an elderly person, the patient and family agreed to receive the heart.
However, patient T. had aortic valve replacement surgery 9 years ago, so during the heart transplant, the entire heart and major blood vessels needed to be unstuck, which posed a high risk of bleeding.
Receiving heart organs from elderly donors (>55 years old) requires as low a cold ischemic time as possible (
Professor, Dr. Pham Nhu Hiep, Director of Hue Central Hospital said, we calculated the time to retrieve the heart and transport it to Hue to be as short as possible.
At the same time, the time to prepare the patient to receive the heart must also be the most reasonable because the entire heart anatomy must be removed in patients with very severe heart failure, requiring the support of an extracorporeal circulation system to stabilize hemodynamics and optimize perfusion of other organs; this will prolong the extracorporeal circulation time during heart transplantation, increasing the risk of bleeding after transplantation.
This is really a difficult problem that needs careful consideration in choosing the transplant method and technique to ensure the success of this heart transplant.
However, with a sense of responsibility and wholehearted devotion to the patient, despite "racing against time" and having to perform difficult techniques, the medical team at Hue Central Hospital is still determined to make efforts to receive that sacred and rare gift to save the life of a critically ill patient.
After 4 hours and 52 minutes from the time the heart was received and transported to Hue Central Hospital, the "Hanoi heart" was beating healthily again in the patient's chest at Hue Central Hospital at 11:01 p.m. on July 18.
However, weaning from extracorporeal circulation is very difficult, requiring mechanical circulatory support such as intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
After 6 days of intensive care and resuscitation, the patient was gradually reduced on vasopressor drugs, stopped mechanical ventilation, weaned off ECMO, IABP with stable hemodynamic and biochemical parameters, good heart function EF 60%, TAPSE 20.
To revive the life of patient PTT, Hue Central Hospital would like to express our gratitude to the noble heart of the donor's family who overcame pain and loss to sow life and happiness for the patient. The noble gesture of the donor and his family has left a great impression on those of us who directly perform professional work.
In reality, although many people clearly understand that organ and tissue donation is an act of saving lives, it is not easy to do because of many barriers, notions from family, clan, and the spiritual thought that "death must be complete" is deeply ingrained in the subconscious.
If we witness young people who are at school age, young people in their prime of life, suffering from organ failure and struggling every day, then we will understand the preciousness of organ donation after death.
At that time, the departure of a person is no longer meaningless, because from this death, another life has been revived and their "giving is forever" becomes an example, a motivation for others to live, learn, follow and replicate in the community.
The miracle of organ transplants not only comes from the outstanding success of medicine, but also interwoven with humane stories about family affection and humanity.
Professor, Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health, said that Vietnam's organ transplants are not inferior to the world. Each year, Vietnam performs about 1,000 transplants, raising Vietnam's position on the regional organ transplant map.
However, this field faces many challenges due to the limited source of organ donations, mostly from living donors; while in developed countries, the number of organ donations from brain-dead donors is higher.
Professor Thuan noted that this requires us to change our thinking, especially in organ donation advocacy.
Medical units have gradually built a team of qualified consultants, identified potential sources for this team to approach, persevere, and gradually convince cases diagnosed with brain death. To date, nearly 10,000 people have registered to donate tissues and organs following the call of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the program "Register to donate tissues and organs to save lives - Giving is forever".
It is known that this is the 12th heart transplant and the 11th cross-Vietnam heart transplant of Hue Central Hospital. To date, the facility has routinely performed over 2,000 tissue, organ, and stem cell transplants for patients across the country, contributing to reviving many lives on the brink of life and death.
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