“Most of the times, the coordinated work of over a hundred healthcare workers is needed to perform an organ transplantation. This includes the donor hospital, the coordination centre of the National Blood Supply Service, units involved in transportation and the team performing the transplantation.”, said Dr. László Piros, Deputy Director of Semmelweis University’s Department of Transplantation and Surgery.
The 11,000th organ transplant in Hungary was performed on 17th June 2020 in a female patient with acute liver failure waiting for a liver with high urgency.
Based on the information provided by the Deputy Director, the surgery was successful.
“I am very grateful to everyone at the Department who worked on my surgery and has been helping me recover. I even got engaged while at the Department, so I feel like I have been reborn and have been given a second chance. To make the best of it, I would like to focus only on positive things.”, said Klaudia Mahr, the patient undergoing the 11,000th transplantation.
All transplant programmes are available at Semmelweis University. Up till 14th July, a total of 5,040 kidney transplants, 1,100 liver transplants, 600 heart transplants and 71 pancreas transplants were performed at the university. 63 percent of all organ transplants in Hungary have been performed at Semmelweis University in the past 47 years. On a national level, 8,976 kidney transplants, 1,098 liver transplants, 658 heart transplants, 181 pancreas transplants and 87 lung transplants have taken place.
The first kidney transplant was performed by Dr. András Németh, associate professor in Szeged in 1962. The first kidney transplant programme was launched in 1973 at Semmelweis University led by Professor Ferenc Perner. The first heart transplant was performed by Professor Zoltán Szabó in 1992 at Semmelweis University’s Városmajor Heart and Vascualr Centre. Semmelweis University’s Department of Transplantation and Surgery opened in 1994 and the following year (1995) the liver transplantation programme was launched, which has been operating successfully since.
Photo: Attila Kovács – Semmelweis Universtiy
Translation: Ágnes Raubinek
