For the first time, Vietnam successfully performed a simultaneous heart-lung transplant for a patient with multiple organ failure.

A 38-year-old female patient with multiple organ failure, whose life expectancy is only a matter of days, has just received a simultaneous heart-lung transplant by doctors at Viet Duc Hospital. This is the first simultaneous heart-lung transplant in the history of organ transplants in Vietnam.

Sharing with the press on the morning of August 13, Dr. Duong Duc Hung - Director of Viet Duc Hospital said that the first female patient to receive a simultaneous heart-lung transplant in Vietnam was Ms. Tran Nhu Q. (38 years old).

Ms. Q. has a history of atrial septal defect - severe pulmonary hypertension that was closed despite the atrial septal defect at Hanoi Heart Hospital in 2011, without regular monitoring, and has only been taking medication for 1 year. The patient has no history of stroke.

Dr. Duong Duc Hung, Director of Viet Duc Hospital shared with reporters.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Huu Lu - Deputy Head of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Cardiovascular Center, Viet Duc Hospital, the female patient was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of Eisenmenger syndrome - irreversible right ventricular failure - severe tricuspid regurgitation/history of atrial septal defect, the possibility of death is calculated in days, and there is an indication for simultaneous heart and lung transplantation.

"The patient was hospitalized for many months. We thought this would probably be the last time the patient would be hospitalized if there was no organ transplant," Dr. Duong Duc Hung shared.

As soon as there was information that a young man had donated his brain-dead organs, doctors at Viet Duc Hospital held an emergency consultation. "The question many people have raised is, if the heart and lungs are not successful, will the chance for two other people be lost?", in response to this question, the Director of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital determined to save the patient according to the principle that whoever is more seriously ill will have priority for organ transplant.

Doctors are simultaneously transplanting a heart and lung block into a female patient.

Although there was not enough time to treat the patient's malnutrition and the donor's lungs were infected with Acinetor baummani bacteria and were larger than the recipient's chest, the doctors were determined to perform the transplant as soon as they had a donor organ.

"We had an interdisciplinary consultation, because to perform the improved simultaneous heart-lung transplant technique, there must be interdisciplinary coordination such as: cardiothoracic medicine, anesthesia - resuscitation, surgery, rehabilitation, nutrition, etc.," Associate Professor Lu said.

The surgery lasted 7 hours continuously, and experts at Viet Duc Hospital had to use an extracorporeal circulation system to temporarily replace the heart and lungs during that time. To ensure the heart functioned well, it was necessary to avoid infusing too much fluid causing pulmonary edema, use less anesthesia, and use the most advanced hemodynamic monitoring equipment.

Doctors also performed bilateral lung resection to fit, connected the two main bronchi instead of the traditional trachea to better perfuse the anastomosis, and used a flexible bronchoscope during surgery to evaluate the two main bronchial anastomoses.

After lung transplantation, patients need to take strong immunosuppressants but are very susceptible to infection because of the connection to the outside and the donor lung is already infected with multi-resistant A. Baummani bacteria, so it is necessary to balance the dose of immunosuppressants (because the drugs reduce resistance).

According to Dr. Duong Duc Hung, this is an extremely rare case, requiring interdisciplinary coordination, applying the most advanced surgical and resuscitation techniques available today.

The female patient is recovering very well.

To date, exactly 24 days after the transplant, the female patient continues to be monitored for resuscitation. "The past 24 days have been stressful for the resuscitation team and surgeons. Today, the whole team has just been relieved and is very happy that in 1-2 weeks, we will be able to give the patient's mother a child, give the 13-year-old son a mother and give the patient's siblings a healthy sister. This is something we are very happy about," said Dr. Duong Duc Hung.

The success of the simultaneous heart-lung transplant not only marked a major step forward in organ transplant capacity, especially multi-organ transplant, but also affirmed the expertise of the Vietnamese medical team in the field of surgery. This achievement opened up new opportunities for life and treatment for patients with end-stage heart and lung disease.

"With the success of the heart-lung transplant, we have continued to plant the red flag with yellow star of Vietnam on the map of multiple organ transplants, especially in simultaneous heart-lung transplants because currently heart-lung transplants are very rare. Due to the requirement of rare organ sources and extremely complicated techniques, each year the world only performs about 100 transplants like this," said Dr. Hung.

Witnessing her daughter's journey of recovery, Ms. Vu Thi Duc (65 years old) - the patient's mother choked up: "Before the transplant, my child had to stay in the hospital for 3 months, her health was very weak, she had to sit in a wheelchair and could not walk by herself. Seeing my child go into the operating room, I could only raise my hand to greet her, shedding tears without knowing what to say, not knowing if my child's transplant was successful. When the surgery was successful, I could not sleep all night. Now I am very excited. I would like to thank the hospital doctors for performing a successful surgery to give my family back a child, a mother, a sister".

It is expected that in the next 1-2 weeks, the female patient will be discharged from the hospital.

Heart-lung transplantation is an advanced medical technique in which the patient's heart and both lungs are simultaneously replaced with a healthy heart and two lungs from a suitable donor. This is the final treatment for patients with both end-stage heart and lung disease, when all other treatments are no longer effective.

The surgery requires high technique, coordination of many specialties and a special resuscitation and post-operative care system.

Dr. Hung said that in the world, heart-lung transplantation is rarely performed due to the requirement for rare organ sources, complicated surgical procedures and high risk of complications; it is indicated for cases of simultaneous heart disease and end-stage lung disease when all other treatment methods are no longer effective.

Common situations include: Complex congenital heart disease with Eisenmenger-type pulmonary hypertension; severe pulmonary hypertension that has caused irreversible right heart failure; or end-stage lung disease with irreversible left heart disease.

Dr. Pham Tien Quan, Head of the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Intensive Care Department, is examining a patient.

Due to the need for rare organ sources and extremely complex techniques, only about 100 of these transplants are performed worldwide each year.

According to doctors at Viet Duc Hospital, the success rate at major centers around the world when performing simultaneous heart-lung transplantation in the UK is about 85% at 90 days and 72% at 1 year. In the US, some leading centers such as Stanford Health Care have recorded a 1-year survival rate of nearly 90%, higher than the national average. Many international reports show that the 5-year survival rate after transplantation is currently about 60%, demonstrating the effectiveness of this method in prolonging and improving the quality of life for patients.

In 2025, Viet Duc Hospital performed the highest number of cases of organ retrieval and transplantation from brain-dead donors ever.

Since the end of 2023 and especially in 2025, there has been a sharp increase in the number of brain-dead donors. From August 2024 to August 2025, the hospital has mobilized more than 50 cases of severe traumatic brain injury to agree to donate organs, and performed multiple organ retrieval from 34 brain-dead donors.

In particular, there were weeks when the hospital took multiple organs from brain-dead donors to transplant into a series of patients receiving hearts, livers, kidneys, and even patients receiving two organs at the same time (in cases of patients receiving simultaneous heart and liver transplants, simultaneous heart and lung transplants, simultaneous liver and kidney transplants).

As of August 12, 2025, there have been 2,478 cases (including heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplants) of organs transplanted from living and brain-dead donors at Viet Duc Hospital, including 109 heart transplants, 8 lung transplants, 144 liver transplants from brain-dead donors, 25 liver transplants from living donors, 1,960 live kidney transplants, and 232 kidney transplants from brain-dead donors.

The number of organ and tissue donations after brain death by August 12, 2025 at the hospital is 150 cases.

In the past year, from August 2024 to August 2025, the hospital recorded a record number of cases agreeing to donate brain-dead organs, so the number of cases of multiple organ retrieval after resuscitation and brain-dead diagnosis was the highest ever.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/lan-dau-tien-viet-nam-ghep-thanh-cong-dong-thoi-tim-phoi-cho-nguoi-benh-suy-da-tang-i777876/