(VOVWORLD) - A 41-year-old man with multi-organ failure has become the first patient in Vietnam to undergo a successful simultaneous heart and liver transplant.
The life-saving surgery was performed at the Hanoi-based Viet Duc Friendship Hospital on October 1, the hospital announced on Wednesday.
After the 8-hour surgery, the patient’s new heart began beating almost immediately, and within 36 hours, his liver and heart functions started to recover steadily.
Doctor Duong Duc Hung, Director of Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital, said this is the most difficult transplant case ever because both important organs, the heart and liver, were damaged, and they did the transplant in an emergency setting. The patient's liver failure was so severe that the blood removed could no longer clot.
"Another difficulty is that the two organs to be used for transplant were transported more than 300 km from Hanoi and had to be moved quickly to minimize the time the organs were separated from the body. All stages must be extremely urgent, all specialties must coordinate,” Hung said.
By Wednesday, the patient was able to speak, eat, drink, and interact with others, with his heart improving daily and his liver almost returning to normal.