A rare case of donation was recorded in Lithuania: there were only ten such donors in the country

After obtaining the consent of the relatives to transplant the deceased’s organs and carry out the investigation, it was determined that the donor corneas were suitable for transplantation. They are currently stored in the Tissue Bank and will be transplanted to recipients awaiting donor corneas in the near future.

“Although there are not many cases of heart failure in Lithuania, each of them is very important, because it gives people with serious illnesses the hope of a new life,” says Artūras Bagotyrius, director of the Ministry’s National Transplantation Office. of health.

In fact, such donations are quite rare in Lithuania; this last case is the tenth in 5 years. The vast majority of organ donors register after brain death is registered.

The non-beating heart donation model was validated in Lithuania in November 2015. Until then, two models of organ donation were used in Lithuania to save the lives of people waiting for a transplant: living donation and donation after of brain death.

The introduction of the third model, the non-beating heart donation model, has the potential to further save recipients waiting for donor organs.

Heart-free donation can be achieved during the resuscitation process of the patient by not restoring vital functions, stopping the heart and stopping breathing, that is, establishing the fact of death. Then certain medical procedures can be performed, during which the donor’s organs receive blood (nutrients and oxygen) and remain viable for some time.

The first beating-free donor in Lithuania was registered on July 21, 2016. After confirming the death of the brain and the occurrence of asystole (cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest) and obtaining the consent of family members, resuscitators and anesthesiologists from LSMUL, Kaunas Clinics took the urgent decision to prepare this donor as a non-beating heart donor.

Transplantation from a non-beating heart donor was performed for the first time in December 2020 at the Santara clinics of the Vilnius University Hospital.

With this donation model, the same organs and tissues can be transplanted to the recipient as in the case of subsequent brain death, except the heart. In Lithuania, kidneys and corneas are obtained from non-beating heart donors.

These operations are carried out in exceptional cases because they require special equipment and especially professional personnel. These transplants are extremely urgent and require even greater efficiency than usual.

The non-beating heart donation model has been validated in many countries of the European Union. Some countries have extensive experience with this model. In the Czech Republic, for example, it dates back to 1972, the Netherlands in 1981, and the United Kingdom in 1989.

It is important to emphasize that in a resuscitation and intensive care unit, a dying person is always resuscitated and everything possible is done to save their life. Organ or tissue donation is possible only after brain death or diagnosis of death due to disruption of blood circulation and respiration.

In all cases, even if the person had a donor card before death, that is, they had expressed their desire to donate their tissues and organs for transplants after death, doctors are asking their relatives to do so. Therefore, it is recommended to talk to your closest people about your decision, which would ease the heavy burden of making decisions on them.

All adults living in Lithuania can consent to organ and tissue donation. This can be done online at ntb.lt, medical institutions, Eurovaistinė pharmacies.