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The National Transplant Office of the Ministry of Health started the international transplant coordination process on Tuesday night, when Latvia offered liver and heart. After checking the recipient registry, Latvia was given the answer that heart and liver are suitable for Lithuanian recipients.
Lithuania is actively cooperating with Latvia in the field of organ donation and transplantation, according to the signed agreement.
A Lithuanian Air Force helicopter was used to transport the heart from the neighboring country. He, along with the Lithuanian medical team, left for Latvia at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday. in the morning. Liver transplants flew along with cardiologists.
The deceased donor’s heart will be transplanted to the recipient at VUL Santara clinics, the liver to the recipient at LSMUL Kaunas clinics.
Due to the extremely short time of cardiac ischemia, an Air Force or border helicopter is always used to transport this organ to another country in all cases. In order to save the time and the heart that the recipient hopes to transport as soon as possible, it was decided that it was convenient to transport the liver from Latvia to Kaunas by ambulance with police escort.
On Wednesday afternoon, the heart reached Lithuania. The helicopter landed on the Vilnius Santariškės traffic ring road at 4 pm, the heart was presented for transplant surgery at the VUL Santara clinics.
This is the first international donation process this year, bringing donor organs to Lithuania. In 2021, the lungs were exported from Lithuania to Germany. In 2020, heart and liver were imported from Latvia to Latvia, liver, heart and lungs were exported from Lithuania to other countries (Switzerland, Latvia, Germany).
The basic principle of international organ donation is that donor organs are offered to foreign countries only when they are not suitable for recipients treated in their own country due to medical parameters.
Currently 410 recipients await organ and tissue transplants in Lithuania. Of these, 93 people expect the liver, 47 the heart, 119 the kidney and the pancreas-kidney complex, 8 the lung, 5 the heart and the lung and 138 the cornea. In 2021, 14 kidney transplants were performed, 11 corneas, 3 liver and 1 heart.
Organ transplantation is the result of two equal components: a great medical achievement and the most respectable noble decision of loved ones, which provide the opportunity to cure or improve the quality of life of seriously ill patients.
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Photo by V. Ščiavinskas
Any adult citizen can express their consent to organ donation. This can be done by signing an organ donation consent, and after signing it, this is especially important, speaking with family members, who make a decisive decision in the event of death.
