7 people revived thanks to organ transplants from brain-dead donors

On March 21, Associate Professor, Dr. Do Kim Que, Deputy Director of Thong Nhat Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that the man was admitted to the hospital with very serious multiple injuries, cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and signs of brain damage on March 17.

After successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient was transferred to the Department of Anesthesia and Resuscitation Surgery for monitoring. Due to severe brain damage, doctors tried to save him but his health showed no signs of recovery. After more than a day, the man lost his reflexes and showed signs of brain death.

The hospital's Organ Donation and Transplantation Association met and discussed with the patient's wife, mother and siblings. After being explained, the family decided to donate the patient's organs to save many other lives.

The hospital established a brain death assessment committee and coordinated with the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation to initiate the process. On the morning of March 19, the patient was declared brain dead at 8:30 am.

At 2 p.m. the same day, the doctors and nurses expressed their gratitude and respectfully observed a minute of silence before removing the organs from the donor's body. According to initial assessments, the removed organs were all of good quality.

Two kidneys were transplanted to two patients with kidney failure at Thong Nhat Hospital. The heart and part of the liver were transplanted to patients at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The remaining liver was transplanted to patients at Hue Central Hospital. Two corneas were transplanted to two people at Cho Ray Hospital.

All organ and tissue transplants were performed smoothly. All patients had a good prognosis in the first hours after transplant.

"We would like to express our deep gratitude to the donor's family for overcoming the pain of loss to carry out this noble act," Associate Professor, Dr. Le Dinh Thanh, Director of the Hospital, shared, adding that this brave decision not only revived other lives but also spread noble human values.

Organ transplantation is one of the most important achievements of human medicine since the 20th century. Since the first kidney transplant in 1992, the country has had more than 9,000 organ transplants, mainly kidney transplants. These are the 20th and 21st kidney transplants at Thong Nhat Hospital, marking the hospital's progress in its 33-year journey of organ transplantation and 15 years of organ harvesting from brain-dead donors in Vietnam.

Recently, many hospitals have established human tissue and organ donation associations, which have significantly increased the number of brain-dead organ donors. Hospital staff are trained in knowledge, identifying potential brain-dead people; diagnosing and resuscitating brain-dead patients to ensure good organ quality, contributing to successful transplants; convincing families to agree and performing organ and tissue retrieval.