This is a real battle to save the child. The doctors of one of the hospitals in the city of Padova (Padova) went today to Rome to fight for the life of an eleven-year-old girl.
A child suffering from a rare metabolic disease urgently needed an urgent liver transplant. And this body was found. True, not in Padua, but in the capital of Italy. An eight-year-old boy died at the Bambino Jesu Rome Children's Hospital, and his parents, showing nobility, compassion and generosity, agreed to transplant his organs.
At 15:00 local time, doctors from Padua were informed about the presence of an organ for an 11-year-old baby, after which they immediately flew to Rome. Every minute counted, and that is why the ambulance, on which the doctors got to the Hospital of the Infant Christ, was accompanied by a police car.
By 6:00 p.m., the hospital was already ready for an organ transplant operation for the girl. The operation was successful.
“We thank all the representatives of hospitals, law enforcement agencies, aviation, and also the doctors who took part in this operation for the responsibility shown today,” said Veneto County President Luca Zaia.
The first liver transplantation was performed by Thomas Starszl back in 1963. However, after less than 20 years, such operations began to be done in Italy. Already in 1997, more than 50 thousand liver transplants were performed in the world, and their number continued to grow rapidly with the improvement of methods and equipment. And Italy in the field of liver transplantation did not lag behind other European countries.
In the first decade of the 20th century, about 90 liver transplant operations were performed in Italy annually, but they were designed only for adults. But already in 2008, Italian doctors successfully transplanted the liver to a nine-month-old infant from an adult donor, thereby confirming their high professional level in this field of medicine.
By the way, this breakthrough in Italian medicine was made by the doctors of the same children's hospital, where the baby from Padua had surgery today. Then, in 2008, the liver transplant operation for the baby went on for a long time. Doctors did not immediately announce its success - they waited until the child's condition returns to normal after surgery.
Soon, the baby started recovering, and the Vatican-based Bambino Jesu Children's Hospital became the only medical institution in Europe where all kinds of organ and tissue transplants are performed. But Italian doctors did not stop there. In 2011, an unusual liver transplant operation was performed in Italy. Its uniqueness was that the procedure for the removal of the donor liver was completely carried out by a special robot, which is the development of Italian scientists. The 46-year-old recipient and his 44-year-old brother, who acted as a donor, felt good after the operation and left the hospital on the ninth day.
This unique operation allows us to predict the most positive future of Italian transplantology, which successfully combines many years of experience and innovative methods.