The special decision to "overcome pain" led to the first lung transplant in the South.

(Dan Tri) - “My daughter decided to donate her father’s organs alone, so that other critically ill patients can be revived. This mother is very proud of her child…”, said the wife of the patient who donated her organs to perform the first lung transplant in the South.

Recently, the public was moved by the news that in just 3 days (November 7-9), the medical staff of Cho Ray Hospital (HCMC) worked continuously, even overnight on weekends, to promptly receive 2 organ donation and transplant operations.

From there, they directly brought life to 7 patients, and at the same time transferred many organs to other regions of the country to save 5 other patients.

Cho Ray Hospital doctors "work all night" to transplant organs to save lives (Photo: Hospital).

“This mother is very proud of her child…”

According to the medical history, on November 7, a 49-year-old male patient (residing in Ho Chi Minh City) was transferred to Cho Ray Hospital with a severe traumatic brain injury due to a domestic accident. After the team's efforts to save the patient failed, the patient's relatives decided to donate his body parts to cases in need of organ transplants.

Notably, the person who decided to donate the first and quickest organ at the patient's "life or death" moment was his little daughter.

Sitting in the corner of the meeting room of Cho Ray Hospital, the patient's wife shared that when her husband had an accident, her daughter, T., was the only one taking care of him. When she learned that her father could not survive, T. was very sad but quickly wiped away her tears, thinking of other patients who needed life-saving organs.

“My daughter decided to donate her father’s organs alone, so that other critically ill patients can be revived and live again. This mother is very proud of her child…”, the wife said emotionally.

The wife and children of the 49-year-old man emotionally shared his decision to donate the patient's organs (Photo: Hoang Le).

In response to the noble gesture of the donor and his family, along with legal procedures and evaluation of the function of the donated organ, Cho Ray Hospital notified the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center to select suitable transplant patients and urgently perform major surgeries overnight.

Dr. Tran Thanh Linh, Head of the Emergency Resuscitation Department (ICU) of Cho Ray Hospital, shared that when receiving a critically ill patient, he and his colleagues were very heartbroken that they could not save them.

But after receiving the patient's family's wish to donate organs, medical staff must stay focused on both approaching the diagnosis according to brain death regulations and finding ways to preserve the best organs possible.

The most difficult thing is to keep the lungs, because if not controlled well, the lungs will accumulate fluid and cannot be removed. Besides, if it leads to infection, all other organs are at risk of being lost.

“In this case, the difficulty also lies in the fact that the patient had a very severe drop in blood pressure. The ICU team had to be on standby in the operating room to be ready to perform ECMO and resuscitation after organ harvesting surgery…”, Dr. Linh said.

Thanks to close coordination between specialists, by the early morning of November 8, the first transplants were successful, opening up new opportunities for young patients, including one heart transplant and two kidney transplants.

Doctors observed a moment of silence to pay tribute to the organ donor (Photo: Hospital).

And a 39-year-old male patient in Ho Chi Minh City was lucky to become the first lung transplant recipient in the Southern region. At the same time, 2 corneas were also transported to Hue Central Hospital and successfully transplanted into patients.

“Can you guys still do it…”

Before they could rest, doctors at Cho Ray Hospital continued to receive information about another organ donation case on the night of November 9.

Doctor Tran Thanh Linh recalled that after performing the first organ harvesting and transplant, most of the members of the major surgical team - including the resuscitation team - were very tired. In this situation, Dr. Pham Thanh Viet asked everyone directly: "Do you have enough strength to do another surgery or not...".

Almost immediately, the oldest member of the team responded, “There is still enough.” The spirit of helping the patient quickly spread. Even doctors who were not initially assigned volunteered to go to Ba Ria Hospital to retrieve organs.

At this point, a new battle was immediately underway. They had to struggle against time, how to proceed with receiving organ donations as soon as possible.

Dr. Du Thi Ngoc Thu, Head of the Organ Transplant Coordination Unit of Cho Ray Hospital, is one of the first people ready to join the team to participate in the second organ transplant donation (Photo: Hoang Le).

The second donor was a 32-year-old man who suffered a severe brain injury from a traffic accident and was beyond saving. When doctors received the information, the patient had been in cardiac arrest for 30 minutes, and there were concerns that the organ could not be harvested…

Under the efforts of the medical staff of Cho Ray Hospital and the coordination of the traffic police team from Ba Ria Hospital, the donor's heart was urgently transported to Cho Ray Hospital within 64 minutes, in time to be transplanted into a heart failure patient.

Next, the organ transport trucks rushed to the airport to transfer part of the liver to Hue (the remaining liver was transplanted to a patient in Ho Chi Minh City), and the lung was transferred to Hanoi to transplant to a case at the Central Lung Hospital, under the coordination of the aviation force.

Meanwhile, two donated kidneys continue to be transplanted to patients on the waiting list at Cho Ray Hospital.

With the efforts of all parties, a total of 12 donated organs were successfully transplanted to patients in the North, Central and South regions (Photo: Hospital).

Dr. Nguyen Thai An, Head of the Cardiac Surgery Department, shared that this was the first time in a very short time that he and his colleagues performed two consecutive heart transplants. And so far, the surgeries have been basically successful, as the two patients who received the hearts are awake, their hemodynamics and indicators have gradually stabilized.

For Dr. An, the special thing about the recent transplant was that the Cho Ray team came to another medical facility in an emergency, with almost nothing in hand, but turned everything from "zero" to "one". This success was created by the will of the hospital's head, helping the medical staff to be confident and forget about fatigue, because there were no obstacles in the working process.

Dr. Nguyen Hoang Binh, Head of the Department of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, who recently performed the first lung transplant, said that before the transplant, the patient receiving the lung almost just stayed at home on oxygen and could not do anything.

The patient also had pulmonary hypertension, so he was at high risk during the transplant. With the support of the Resuscitation and Anesthesia team, the first transplant was successfully performed by the Thoracic and Vascular Surgery team.

“I would like to thank Deputy Director Pham Thanh Viet and before that Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Tri Thuc - former Director of the Hospital - for creating the best conditions, helping us to go abroad to study organ transplant techniques, preparing everything, to have today's success”, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Binh expressed.

Doctors in the first lung transplant in the South (Photo: Hospital).

BSCK2 Pham Thanh Viet, Deputy Director of Operations at Cho Ray Hospital, on behalf of all doctors and medical staff, thanked the families of the organ donors for their noble actions, helping critically ill patients find new life.

In particular, the first lung transplant performed at Cho Ray Hospital opened an important turning point in the field of organ donation and transplantation in the Southern region, bringing more treatment opportunities to many cases fighting death.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/quyet-dinh-vuot-noi-dau-dac-biet-lam-nen-ca-ghep-phoi-dau-tien-o-mien-nam-20251111160430163.htm