University Medical Centre Ho Chi Minh City announced on May 12 that it had successfully performed its 10th heart transplant using an organ donated after brain death.
The donor heart came from a brain-dead patient at Quang Ninh General Hospital and was transported overnight on May 10 to Ho Chi Minh City for emergency transplantation.
The recipient had been hospitalised with severe progressive heart failure and required continuous vasoactive medication. He was later placed on the urgent transplant waiting list managed by the National Coordination Centre for Human Organ and Tissue Transplantation.
Eight days before the transplant, the patient suffered cardiac arrest. Doctors were forced to use extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, known as ECMO, to temporarily maintain circulation and keep him alive while waiting for a suitable donor heart.
Nguyen Hoang Dinh, deputy director of the hospital and head of the transplant team, said the patient’s condition was extremely critical and the risk of death increased over time while relying on ECMO support.
The brain-death organ donation case in Quang Ninh offered a rare opportunity for survival, although the transplant posed major challenges because of the long transport distance and extended cold ischaemia time, which could significantly affect the heart’s recovery after surgery.
After extensive consultations, doctors decided to accept the donor organ while preparing advanced resuscitation and circulatory support measures to maximise the patient’s chances of survival during and after the operation.
The organ transport operation became a race against time involving coordination between hospitals, aviation authorities and traffic police.
The donor heart was flown to Ho Chi Minh City in two hours before traffic police escorted the organ from Tan Son Nhat International Airport to the hospital in just nine minutes and 34 seconds.
The recipient had already been prepared in the operating theatre before the organ arrived. Around 50 minutes later, surgeons successfully implanted the heart, which began beating again inside the patient’s chest.
Hospital representatives expressed gratitude to the donor’s family and the coordinated efforts of Quang Ninh General Hospital, police and aviation authorities for helping complete the cross-country organ transport mission and giving the patient a second chance at life.