Lung Transplantation Performed for the First time at the Heart Institute

On St. Nicholas Day, the Heart Institute team performed three transplants: a lung transplant for 35-year-old Margarita, a heart transplant for an 8-year-old child, and a heart transplant for a 35-year-old man.

The donor was a 13-year-old boy from the Odessa region, who was diagnosed with brain death due to extensive cerebral hemorrhage. The boy’s parents gave their consent to organ harvesting and thus saved 5 people. Another donor was a 30-year-old man from the Kyiv region, who received fatal injuries as a result of a road accident. Thanks to the consent of relatives, 4 people got a chance at life.

35-year-old Margarita Smilyanets from the Mykolaiv region, is a mother of 5 children. For 5 years, the woman has been fighting a serious lung disease. For the past 2 years, she has been forced to live in a nursing home because she needs special care. The only chance to save Margarita was a lung transplant. This is the first lung transplant at the Heart Institute!

8-year-old Tikhon from Dnipropetrovsk region had a severe viral disease, which was complicated by inflammation of the heart muscle with the development of dilated cardiomyopathy.

35-year-old Igor from Kyiv, who had been waiting for a donor organ for more than two years, also received a heart. Over the past month, his condition has been critically deteriorating and the man has been in the intensive care unit under mechanical circulatory support.

The transplants were successful. Today, the patients’ condition is stable the treatment and rehabilitation are continuing.
A low bow to the families of the donors, who gave the patients a chance for a second life in the most difficult moment.