50 years after reunification, Vietnam shines on the world organ transplant map

(Dan Tri) - Starting 40 years behind the world, Vietnam's organ transplant industry had to sprint right from the first steps. Up to now, we are the leading country in Southeast Asia in this field.

The "first times" that put Vietnam's name on the organ transplant map

June 4, 1992, performed the first successful kidney transplant

The first organ transplant (kidney transplant) was successfully performed in Vietnam at Military Hospital 103, with the participation of leading experts from many hospitals in the country. A Taiwanese expert also directly participated in the surgery.

A year earlier, Vietnam had established a National Kidney Transplant Steering Committee. After the committee was established, we sent doctors to Cuba to learn about organ transplant techniques.

The first organ transplant was "lacking everything" from experience to equipment, and the recovery time after the transplant was slow, but it was the premise that opened up the opportunity to continue living for thousands of Vietnamese people with organ failure later on.

January 31, 2004, the first successful liver transplant

Doctors and nurses in the first liver transplant team in Vietnam (Photo: Hospital 103).

The first liver transplant in Vietnam was performed at Military Hospital 103.

In this major surgery, more than 100 doctors embarked on a liver transplant to save a 10-year-old girl named Nguyen Thi Diep, who suffered from a life-threatening congenital biliary atresia. The transplant was successful after 17 tense hours in the operating room.

5/2010, the first liver transplant from a brain-dead donor

The law on organ donation from brain-dead donors was issued in 2007, and in 2009, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital registered a state-level project to realize that law.

In May 2010, from the first organ donation after brain death, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital performed a major surgery with the participation of 50 doctors and nurses. After 6 hours, the patient's liver and 2 kidneys helped to light up the lives of 3 people who were on the brink of death due to illness.

June 17, 2010, the first heart transplant was successfully performed.

Doctors visit the patient of Vietnam's first heart transplant (Photo: Hospital 103).

Mr. Bui Van Nam underwent a heart transplant on June 17, 2010, at the age of 48. After a major surgery that lasted several hours, the heart of a 29-year-old brain-dead patient continued to beat in this man's chest.

The first heart transplant in Vietnam was successfully performed at Hospital 103, marking Vietnamese medicine on the world heart transplant map.

March 1, 2014, successful multi-organ transplant on a patient

After 13 hours of major surgery, a 43-year-old woman with diabetes and kidney failure had her kidneys and pancreas successfully transplanted from a brain-dead donor by doctors at Hospital 103.

This is also the first multi-organ transplant (two organs on one patient) that Vietnamese doctors have performed.

According to experts, multiple organ transplants on the same patient are much more complicated than single organ transplants. Mastering complex techniques helps Vietnamese doctors affirm their skills and qualifications on par with international standards.

September 4, 2015, the first cross-Vietnam organ transplant

At noon on September 4, 2015, the Organ Transplant Coordination Center received a report from doctors at Cho Ray Hospital about a case of a brain-dead donor donating organs.

Immediately, a team of doctors from Viet Duc Friendship Hospital went to Ho Chi Minh City to coordinate with doctors from Cho Ray Hospital to perform surgery to remove organs from the brain-dead donor.

The donated organs were preserved in a specialized solution and immediately the medical team from Viet Duc Friendship Hospital went to Tan Son Nhat airport to transport this special "package" to Hanoi .

While the special “package” was being transported, doctors prepared for the liver and heart transplants. When the organs arrived at the hospital, the two transplant surgeries continued overnight and were completed on the morning of September 5, 2015.

October 27, 2020, Vietnam masters the final organ transplant technique

The two patients who received intestinal transplants at Military Hospital 103 both had completely lost their digestive function (Photo: Hospital 103).

On October 27-28, 2020, doctors at Military Hospital 103 successfully performed the first two intestinal transplants in Vietnam.

According to experts, intestinal transplantation is one of the most difficult organ transplantation techniques. This is also the last organ in the group of 6 irreplaceable organs (kidney, liver, heart, pancreas - kidney, lung, intestine) that has been successfully transplanted by world medicine as well as Vietnam.

At that time, Vietnam was among the 20 countries that could master this technique.

February 15, 2023, Vietnam successfully performed the first multi-organ heart-kidney transplant

On February 15, 2023, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital performed the first heart-kidney multi-organ transplant in Vietnam.

The organ recipient is Mr. TTQ, 37 years old, residing in Gia Lai province, suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, heart failure and severe arrhythmia, leading to end-stage renal failure.

On the 8th day after transplantation, heart and kidney functions had almost returned to normal. The patient was able to sit up, eat, and communicate without needing special cardiovascular and respiratory support.

On October 1, 2024, Vietnam performed the first simultaneous heart-liver transplant.

The first heart-liver transplant was performed at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital (Photo: Provided by the hospital).

On October 1, 2024, at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, for the first time in the history of Vietnamese medicine, a simultaneous heart and liver transplant was successfully performed. This is an unprecedented surgery, only recorded in a few countries with advanced medicine such as the US and Europe.

Doctors check the donor's condition (Photo: Provided by the hospital).

The donor was a 36-year-old man from Nghe An who unfortunately had a traffic accident and was declared brain dead. In extreme pain, his family made a courageous decision: to donate all of his organs to save strangers.

The recipient is Mr. D.VH, 41 years old, in Hanoi, with end-stage heart and liver failure, and is being kept alive by ECMO and vasopressors.

As soon as the organ donation information was received, the hospital immediately activated the red alert, coordinating two specialized teams to travel more than 300km at night to Nghe An General Hospital to perform the organ retrieval.

The heart and liver were transported more than 300km (Photo: Provided by the hospital).

The major surgery lasted more than 8 hours at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, bringing together dozens of doctors from various specialties. Each step had to be precise down to the minute, each movement.

Late that night, the donor’s heart began to beat in the stranger’s chest. The liver also functioned, secreting bile regularly. After 5 days, the patient was removed from the endotracheal tube and began breathing on his own again, gradually recovering to the emotional satisfaction of the entire team.

According to Dr. Duong Duc Hung, Director of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, the success of the simultaneous heart and liver transplant for a patient is a proud new milestone in the field of organ transplantation in Vietnam.

The first heart-liver transplant was performed in 8 hours (Photo: Hospital provided).

"We have every right to be proud of Vietnam's organ transplant technique, which is on par with the world's medical powers. Even many more developed countries with more advanced medical systems than Vietnam still cannot perform this technique," Dr. Hung shared.

Human fates are reborn from pieces of life

A patient received a kidney transplant from a brain-dead donor (Photo: Manh Quan).

Regaining consciousness after a major liver transplant, Nguyen Xuan Tai, 46 years old, from Nam Dinh, felt like he was reborn.

In 2009, Mr. Tai discovered he had hepatitis B, and quickly developed end-stage liver failure.

"The diagnosis of liver failure left me with only a liver transplant as the last option. I felt sorry for him and the three children," Tran Thi Thoa, Tai's wife, recalled the day she received the bad news, wiping away her tears.

After 3 months of "wasting away" in a hospital bed waiting for a liver transplant, Mr. Tai compared himself to a withered tree. He had "nothing left", could not eat or sleep.

The first male patient to receive a heart-kidney transplant in Vietnam (Photo: Provided by the hospital).

"Last night was my first 'real' sleep in 3 months. I was so happy," Tai smiled, expressing his gratitude to the owner of the liver he was carrying.

For 11-year-old To Thanh Nhan (Lang Son), the new heart beating in her chest has lit up two lives, her own life and that of her mother who was in pain and exhausted during the months of waiting for her child to receive a heart transplant.

During a year of heart failure waiting for a transplant, the child was hospitalized countless times, then hospitalized continuously. When the medicine and machines could no longer keep the little heart beating, a "miracle" came when the doctor announced that the child was about to have a new heart for transplant, a "gift" from a young man who had just passed away.

The family agreed to let their child's heart continue beating in the chest of another patient, and he was the chosen one.

"Seeing my child through the isolation room glass, my heart was filled with happiness and luck. Many times I thought about my child, who was still so small but would leave me forever, the pain was like someone rubbing salt into the wound. Every day, I burn incense and pray for my child. Now, I pray for the soul of the young man who gave his child his whole heart.

Baby girl successfully received heart transplant (Photo: Provided by hospital).

Nhan shared that she hopes to always be healthy and study well so that when she grows up she can become a doctor and save sick people like her.

Another patient, Mr. Tran Ngoc Thanh, 59 years old, residing in Dien Bien, had a liver transplant 15 years ago.

Previously, in 2010, when he was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease, Mr. Thanh was in critical condition and the only chance to continue living was a challenging liver transplant.

Mr. Thanh recalled that when he was in the hospital waiting for a liver transplant, he thought his life was coming to an end. His family was heartbroken and tormented because he was still so young but his life was tied to a hospital bed, and he could pass away at any time due to end-stage liver failure.

"If I don't get a liver transplant, I won't have a chance to live. Even when I was informed that there was a liver donor, and that I was chosen because I was compatible and because my condition was severe, my mood was still 50-50 because I didn't know what would happen after the transplant.

Unexpectedly, over the past 15 years, I have been living a new life, in a completely healthy state. Although I still have to take anti-rejection drugs every day, I still work as a construction worker, then farm, and live a normal life," said Mr. Thanh.

These are just 3 of more than 9,300 patients who have been revived thanks to organ transplants. The first liver transplant was in 2007, and both the recipient and the liver donor are now healthy. With kidney transplants, patients can live for several more decades, and damaged kidneys can be replaced if there is a source of transplanted kidneys...

Surgeries on 100 people and the mission to help death light up life

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tien Quyet, who performed the first liver transplant from a brain-dead donor, said that patient Thanh's transplant has opened up great prospects for the future of patients who unfortunately suffer from serious illnesses.

Up to now, the techniques and skills of Vietnamese doctors in organ transplants are not inferior to those in the world.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tien Quyet

This liver transplant was performed entirely by the medical team of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, without support from foreign experts.

According to Associate Professor Quyet, organ transplantation is the opportunity to bring the best quality of life to patients with organ failure. Up to now, the techniques and skills of Vietnamese doctors in organ transplantation are not inferior to those in the world. If there are more sources of organs donated from brain-dead donors, more lives will be revived.

Each organ transplant is a multi-army cooperation (Photo: Manh Quan).

Dr. Duong Duc Hung assessed that from the first difficult organ transplants, up to now, Vietnam has organized simultaneous multi-organ transplants, with a team of hundreds of people, all of whom are domestic medical staff.

From the first cases that took more than ten hours, at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, kidney transplants now only take about 2-3 hours, liver transplants take 4-5 hours, heart transplants have become routine, approaching the time of countries in the region and the world.

We have every right to be proud of Vietnam's organ transplant techniques, which are on par with the world's medical powers.

Dr. Duong Duc Hung, Director of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital

This progress was achieved through the tireless efforts of many generations of hospital doctors.

According to experts, organ transplantation is the pinnacle of medicine. The miracle of organ transplantation not only comes from the outstanding success of medicine but also interwoven with humane stories about family affection and human love.

When a person leaves this world, somewhere else, many other lives are saved thanks to the pieces of life that person left behind.

One brain-dead donor can help 10 people receive organ transplants. For patients with liver cancer, heart failure, respiratory failure, etc., organ transplants are almost the only chance to live.

Organ transplantation: The pride of Vietnamese medicine

Professor, Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health, commented: "Organ and tissue transplantation is an important medical achievement, helping to save lives and improve the quality of life for thousands of patients with end-stage organ failure."

Besides mastering the technique of transplanting difficult organs, issues related to success rate, recovery time, and post-transplant immunity have all achieved proud results.

Organ and tissue transplantation is an important medical achievement, helping to save lives and improve the quality of life for thousands of patients with end-stage organ failure.

Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health

Sharing this view, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, President of the Vietnam Association for Organ and Tissue Donation, assessed that after more than 30 years since the first organ transplant, Vietnam has achieved remarkable progress.

"Vietnam is not only completely self-sufficient in technology but also successfully performs many types of complex organ transplants. In many hospitals, organ transplants have become routine," Associate Professor Tien assessed.

In recent years, Vietnam has made strong efforts to bring organ transplant techniques to provincial hospitals, reducing the burden on central hospitals and expanding treatment opportunities for people across the country.

In recent years, Vietnam has made strong efforts to introduce organ transplant techniques (Photo: Hospital provided).

In particular, the rate of organ donation after brain death in Vietnam has increased "vertically". "If in 2023, Vietnam was still in the group of countries with the lowest rate of organ donation after brain death in the world, then by 2024, the number of organ donations after brain death had increased fourfold, equivalent to an increase of 173%", Associate Professor Tien happily informed.

The number of people registering to donate organs after brain death has skyrocketed in recent years (Photo: Minh Nhan).

By the end of 2024, the country had performed more than 9,500 organ transplants. In the past three years, an average of about 1,000 transplants were performed each year. In 2024 alone, 41 cases of organ donation from brain-dead people were recorded.

Entering 2025, since the beginning of the year, the country has recorded 27 cases of organ donation after brain death. Among these cases, there were cases where the family actively agreed to donate without any need for lobbying. If this growth continues, the organ donation rate this year is expected to increase by 300%.

Organ donation is a gift of life that each person can leave behind before passing away (Photo: Manh Quan).

"From the most modest position in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has risen to become the leading country in the region in terms of the number of successful organ transplants as well as the rate of increase in the number of organ donations after brain death," Associate Professor Tien assessed.

Meanwhile, the cost of organ transplants in our country is still much cheaper. The cost of a transplant in Vietnam is 1/8 of that in Thailand and 1/24 of that in the US.

The 3 decades of "sprinting" in the Vietnamese organ transplant industry is not a "rose-paved" path, but a series of obstacles overcome by the tireless efforts of many generations of the medical profession.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/50-nam-sau-thong-nhat-viet-nam-choi-sang-tren-ban-do-ghep-tang-the-gioi-20250427100913022.htm