A lung transplant helps a man start a new life on New Year’s Eve

“The day I entered the operating room was December 31, 2025, when I woke up it was January 1, 2026, welcoming the new year as well as a new beginning,” the patient said emotionally on February 24, after a lung transplant on the last day of the year at the Central Lung Hospital.

Once suffering from severe bronchiectasis, complications piled up, his life time was only measured in months, the man is now gradually recovering with a transplanted donated lung. To him, it was not just an operation, but a miracle of rebirth, opening up opportunities to fulfill unfinished dreams.

Not only him, many other patients have also just crossed the line of life and death. On the 7th day of the Year of the Horse, a patient received a lung transplant from the donated organs of a brain-dead young man at Bach Mai Hospital. He is now awake, had his endotracheal tube removed and is breathing on his own with the new lungs.

People who spent many months recuperating after a transplant now meet again on the first day of spring, thanking the doctors and nurses who have given them a second life.

Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the hospital, said that to date this place has successfully performed 13 lung transplants, with the post-transplant survival rate approaching the leading centers in the region and the world. In less than the last two months of 2025, the hospital performed 5 consecutive transplants: two on the same day, three within 7 days and one on December 31, 2025. On the night of the 6th and 7th of Tet 2026, the first lung transplant of the new year at the hospital was successful.

Transplants are carried out according to the professional standards of UCSF Medical Center (USA), synchronized coordination between many units such as Hospital E, National Organ Transplant Coordination Center, Central Military Hospital 108, Ba Ria General Hospital, Pham Ngoc Thach, Cho Ray, People 115… and many domestic and foreign experts.

Currently, the lung transplant waiting list has hundreds of patients. Without a transplant, after three years, the survival rate is less than 5%. Hospital leaders said that with current capacity, if the organ source is abundant, the unit can perform 40-50 cases per year.

The hospital aims to build a modern specialized model, focusing on lung transplant, lung cancer and cell therapy. Many experts from Japan, Taiwan (China)… have come to exchange expertise, aiming to build a lung transplant center that meets Southeast Asian standards, treating patients at home and abroad.

New techniques such as treating lung diseases with stem cells are being researched and deployed. If successful, patients will be treated domestically at a much lower cost than abroad, opening up the opportunity for Vietnam to become a “medical tourism” destination.