Three lives from the ashes of war: in “Okhmatdyt” they performed the first child transplant during shelling

In Kyiv, during the Russian missile attacks, doctors performed a unique transplant operation: the organs of a four-year-old girl, who was diagnosed as brain dead, were transplanted into three seriously ill children. This was the first time in the history of “Okhmatdyt” that a full-fledged pediatric transplant was performed – during an air raid, under explosions, but with faith in life.

This was reported by the press service of the National Children’s Specialized Hospital “Okhmatdyt”.

In Kyiv, during massive rocket fire, doctors at the National Children’s Specialized Hospital “Okhmatdyt” performed a historic operation for Ukraine – for the first time in conditions of war and threat from the air, an organ transplant was performed from a donor child to three other children.

At the end of last week, a four-year-old girl from Zhytomyr region was brought to the capital’s “Okhmatdyt”. Despite the efforts of doctors, on the night of July 10, the medical council was forced to record the child’s brain death.

In those moments, the parents took an extremely courageous step — they agreed to posthumous donation. With this decision, they saved the lives of three other seriously ill children.

This was the first time in the hospital’s history that it was possible not only to diagnose a child’s brain death, but also to quickly carry out all stages: obtaining consent, organ removal, transplantation, and logistics in extremely difficult conditions. In parallel with the surgical work, explosions continued, air raid sirens sounded, and drones were seen flying in the air.

The distribution of organs looked like this:

• The liver was received by a 16-year-old girl with a serious diagnosis of Wilson-Konovalov disease. She was in intensive care with the first emergency status. Without a transplant, she had no chance of survival.
• A kidney transplant was performed on a 14-year-old boy who had been on dialysis for over seven months.
• A heart transplant was performed on a 12-year-old girl at the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health — she was also in critical condition.

All operations lasted over 13 hours. Specialists from “Okhmatdyt”, the Ukrainian Transplant Coordination Center, and the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health acted in a coordinated manner and as quickly as possible – because every minute the organs spent outside the body could reduce the chance of successful implantation.

“Our recipients were very difficult. And I am sincerely grateful to the donor’s parents for understanding that their decision gave three children a chance at life,” said transplantologist Oleg Godik.

Recall that on the night of July 12, Russian troops launched a massive attack on Ukraine using missiles and kamikaze drones. Explosions were heard in several regions.

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