Ho Chi Minh City hospital transplant organs from brain-dead donor, saving 6 lives within 24 hours

According to Dr. Du Thi Ngoc Thu, head of the organ transplant coordination unit at Cho Ray Hospital, the hospital received information from the family of the brain-dead patient, who wished to fulfill the donor’s final wish of donating all viable tissues and organs to help other patients.

The hospital immediately mobilized medical personnel to prepare for these transplants.

It also quickly completed the necessary legal documentation, assessed the functionality of the donor organs, and notified the National Coordinating Center for Human Organ Transplantation to select suitable recipients.

Within 24 hours, the hospital transplanted a liver, two kidneys, skin, and two corneas from the donor into six patients.

All recipients were in stable condition and continued to be monitored post-surgery.

The skin transplant recipient was a 62-year-old woman from Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam, who had suffered 48-percent body burns of second and third degrees and had a history of diabetes.

She had previously undergone seven debridement and skin graft surgeries but still had extensive skin loss. 

On Saturday, she received skin from the brain-dead donor to completely cover the affected areas.

The two cornea recipients included T.H.M., a 21-year-old woman from southern Kien Giang Province who had congenital corneal dystrophy in both eyes. 

She had experienced blurred and red eyes since childhood and had to stop school after grade six due to worsening vision.

The other patient, N.T.T.H., a 46-year-old woman from Ho Chi Minh City, also had corneal dystrophy in both eyes. 

She reported long-term blurry vision, which had worsened over the past ten years.

The liver transplant recipient was a 62-year-old man from southern Soc Trang Province suffering from cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B. 

Diagnosed and treated since 2023, his condition had progressively worsened.

The other two patients received kidney transplants. 

H.T.K., a 51-year-old woman from southern Hau Giang Province, had been diagnosed with end-stage chronic kidney disease in 2019 and began regular dialysis in 2020.

N.N.T., a 48-year-old man from Dong Nai Province, a neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, was also diagnosed with end-stage renal failure and began regular dialysis in 2023.

Throughout treatment, he underwent numerous tests and registered on the transplant waiting list at Cho Ray Hospital, hoping to end the life tied to dialysis.

After completing pre-operative evaluations, he underwent kidney transplantation. Upon waking the next morning, he felt that a rebirth was truly beginning.