A success achieved thanks to the perfect coordination between the Emilia-Romagna Transplant Reference Center, the Emilia Est 118 Operations Center and the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic, which is confirmed as the first in Italy for heart transplants
Donini: “Proud of an efficient machine that enhances the generous gesture of donors”
In Emilia-Romagna last year there were 516 organ and tissue transplants, the highest number ever. Region at the top at national level for donation and transplantation activities, here the percentage of opposition to donation is lower than the national average (22% against 30%). S. Orsola first center in Italy for number of heart transplants in 2023: 27 against 29 for the whole of 2022
21 July 2023 – When the challenge is against time, collaboration wins over everything. A heart that goes from donor to its recipient in just one hour.
It happened in Emilia Romagnawhere for the first time the transfer of the heart took place in record time, thanks to the use of a helicopter and the organization and coordination of the Transplant Reference Center with the 118 Emilia Est Operations Centre and theIRCCS Sant’Orsola Polyclinic.
Thus begins the new life of the 68-year-old man who received the heart: he is doing well and underwent an operative course without particular complications. A possible result thanks to the efficiency of the coordination structure of the Regional Transplant Reference Centerwhich presided over the case from the selection of the organ to the actual transport by the 118 Emilia Est Operations Center, the only regional point of reference for complex transport.
A story with a happy ending
The story begins when the Transplant Reference Center receives a heartfelt offering from the Trento hospital, in response to a regional emergency launched on a national scale: it is a particularly complex case due to the donor’s conditions. A specific chain of operations is triggered in which, more than any other time, the role of each subject makes the difference. So the choice of helicopter to minimize transfer times and increase the chances of a successful transplant, reducing the ischemia times of the heart to a minimum, which are crucial in every transplant, by an hour and a half. A record result for an organ transport activity as well as for the team.
It is a case that proves concretely the importance of establishing organizational structures and coordination in supporting these central and time-dependent activities to save the lives of many, many patients.
“Ours is a job that has one more enemy to fight in addition to the disease. It’s time. And the commitment of just one is not enough, we need collaboration and teamwork at all levels – declares the professor David Pacini, director of the Cardiac Surgery Unit of the IRCCS Sant’Orsola-. We provide the system and our patients with excellent skills and a state-of-the-art facility. The IRCCS Sant’Orsola is in fact a reference center in the treatment of heart failure at a national level and beyond”.
“We are proud of the result obtained thanks to an efficient and well-oiled machine in which all the professionals and structures do their best work, with the excellent coordination of the regional Transplant Reference Center.- he comments Raffaele Donini, Councilor for Health Policies of the Emilia-Romagna Region-. All of this would be useless, however, if upstream there weren’t the generous choice of the donor’s family: the greatest and most important thanks go to them”.
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