A 41-year-old man with dilated cardiomyopathy that causes heart, liver, and kidney failure, with a life span measured in days, has just had a heart and liver transplant from a brain-dead donor.
This person was admitted to Viet Duc Hospital at the end of September and was kept alive by a heart-lung artificial machine (ECMO). “The only way to save a patient’s life is to replace the heart and liver at the same time,” Dr. Duong Duc Hung, Director of Viet Duc Hospital, said on the afternoon of October 9.
At the same time, Viet Duc Hospital received information from Nghe An General Friendship Hospital, a satellite hospital, that there was a patient with severe traumatic brain injury and no longer expected to live. The patient’s family wishes to donate organs.
A Viet Duc team went to Nghe An to assist in resuscitating the patient, assessing brain death and the condition of organs (in case organs can be retrieved). On the afternoon of October 1, doctors determined that the patient was brain dead and that his organs could be used for transplantation to other patients.
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan visited patients on the morning of October 9. Image: Thao My
At the same time in Hanoi, a professional council meeting was convened with experts in the fields of Resuscitation, Cardiology, Liver, and Kidneys. This is a challenging surgery, situations that need to be considered because the patient’s liver, heart, and kidneys are all in very severe stage of failure, with a high risk of death. During the meeting, many opinions said that a transplant could not be possible due to the patient’s condition being too severe. Another group requested only a heart or liver transplant and not a simultaneous transplant, Dr. Hung recounted.
However, the hospital’s Scientific Council decided to still proceed with the transplant at the same time. A group of Viet Duc doctors stayed to help Nghe An General Friendship Hospital perform two kidney transplants at the hospital at the same time, and the other group quickly brought the organs back to Hanoi. After more than three hours of traveling, the organs arrived at Viet Duc Hospital.
The donor’s heart and liver are transplanted into the recipient’s body. After 8 hours of surgery, the transplanted heart began to beat again. After 36 hours, liver and heart functions gradually recovered. “The new heart completely replaced the damaged heart, and liver functions gradually improved. The patient was extubated and awake,” said the Director of Viet Duc Hospital.
Currently, after more than a week of transplantation, the patient can talk, heart function improves every day, liver function recovers to nearly normal, and bile is secreted with good quality.
Doctors performed a heart-liver transplant for the patient. Image: Hospital provided
“This is the first time in the history of Vietnamese medicine that doctors successfully performed a heart-liver transplant at the same time on a special patient in a severe stage,” said Associate Professor Nguyen Tien Quyet, former Director of Vietnam Hospital. Duc, a leading expert in organ transplantation, said, adding that “Vietnam can completely master all techniques, especially the most difficult techniques in organ transplantation.”
Organ and tissue transplantation is the final treatment method for people with serious diseases due to irreversible organ tissue dysfunction such as chronic kidney, liver, heart, bone marrow failure, corneal failure… Up to the beginning This year, after 32 years of organ transplants and 14 years of taking organs from brain-dead donors, hospitals nationwide have performed more than 8,000 transplants. Of these, about 80 successful heart transplants were mainly conducted at Viet Duc Hospital.