Recently, an important event took place for the medical community and patients waiting for transplantation. Thanks to the consent of five families to posthumous donation, doctors saved 17 lives in two days. UNN reports this with reference to the Ministry of Health.
"Among the posthumous donors is a 13-year-old boy from Odesa Oblast who died of a stroke. His family made a difficult but crucial decision to give others a chance at life by donating their son's organs for transplantation. Despite the long distance between donors and recipients, thanks to the coordinated work of the Ukrainian Center for Transplant Coordination, medical teams received blood samples and performed transplants in different regions of the country," the Ministry of Health reported.
At the Heart Institute, 7-year-old Tikhon received a heart. Also, the team of specialists at this institution performed a lung transplant for the first time. The patient is 35-year-old Margarita, a mother of five who had been waiting for the operation for more than four years.
Previously, only five such transplants had been performed in Ukraine, and this was the first since the beginning of 2024.
"In addition, two children received kidneys: 9-year-old Oleh at the Western Ukrainian Specialized Center, and 6-year-old Dmytro at the Kyiv City Center for Nephrology and Dialysis. At the National Children's Specialized Hospital "Okhmatdyt", 17-year-old Olena, who had been waiting for a donor liver for almost a year and a half, underwent surgery, as only a liver transplant could save her life. The consent of four families to posthumous donation made it possible to carry out transplants for 12 more Ukrainians," the post reads.
The surgeries were also performed at the Shalimov National Scientific Center for Surgery and Transplantation, Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 1, and Lviv Multidisciplinary Clinical Hospital for Intensive Care.
"We express our condolences and deep gratitude to the donor families for their decisions in the most difficult time. Despite the war, Ukraine is making significant steps in the development of transplantation. This is a joint achievement of doctors, medical institutions, patients and the state. All transplant operations are free of charge for patients and are funded by the state as part of the medical guarantee program. According to the National Health Service of Ukraine, 40 medical institutions have been contracted to perform organ transplants, and 10 for hematopoietic stem cell transplants," the ministry said .