13 Jan SIMULTANEOUS, DOUBLE ORGAN DONATION AT HERAKLION HOSPITAL
Today at dawn, Transplant Teams from five hospitals in three different countries met at the “Venizelio” Hospital of Heraklion, in an unprecedented in Greece, graft removal operation, simultaneously from two organ multi-donors, a man aged 51 and a woman aged 58. The Organ Transplant Unit of G.H.A. “Evangelismos” – led by Dr. Vasileios Drakopoulos, assisted by Christos Nikolaidis and coordinated by Catherine Balaska and Dimitrios Pistolas – removed the kidneys, while surgical teams from “Ippokrateio” General Hospital of Thessaloniki & a hospital in Bologna proceeded with the liver grafts removal, the Ophthalmological Clinic of the University Hospital of Heraklion and a German hospital from Hanover, proceeded by removing corneas and lungs, respectively.
Congratulations to the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital who managed for the first time in Greece to simultaneously manage two organ multi-donors, to our National Transplant Organization for their overnight effort & their great work, but above all, to the families of the donors for the magnanimity of their decision.
Today, the process will be completed with the transplantation of the organs to 11 recipients, offering them a very important gift: an opportunity to their future.
