At the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, a record-breaking heart transplant was performed on a newborn baby just two months old from a donor in asystole and with an incompatible blood type.
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Record heart transplant on a newborn of just two months as a donor in asystole, or after the organ had stopped beating, and with an incompatible blood type. The delicate operation was successfully completed by the medical team of theGregorio Marañón Hospital of Madrid. This is the first surgery of this type performed on such a small girl, unthinkable until a few years ago.
The case of little Naiara is exceptional for three reasons. First of all because of the child's age, then because the cardiac graft was implanted after several hours of cold ischemia in a center far from the donor's hospital; finally, because they were incompatible blood groups, which further increases the success of the operation.
"Gregorio Marañón hospital was the first in Spain to perform an infant heart transplant between two children with incompatible blood types, known as AB0 incompatible, and has now become the first in the world to perform this type of procedure" - explains the Dr. Juan Miguel Gil Jaurena, head of the pediatric cardiac surgery department of the Madrid hospital. - This means significantly increasing the chances of recovering a heart for younger children, just a few months old, for whom donations are few ”.
In fact, donation in asystole is much more complex and delicate. "The difference in an asystole donation is that the surgeon finds a heart that has stopped beating for a few minutes and is in hot ischemia." - explains Juarena - “At that moment, what you have to do is recover the beat of that heart, and this happens by connecting the heart to an extracorporeal circulation system. After their recovery, the steps are the same as for a traditional extraction ".
The happy ending story of little Naiara
The parents of the little girl Naiara they found that the baby was suffering from heart problems even before she was born. Unfortunately, in the last weeks of gestation her condition worsened and it was necessary to give birth prematurely. In fact, when she was born she weighed less than two kilos and the transplant took place about two months after birth.
“The little girl managed to grow and we managed to make the rest of the organs mature in order to make Naiara enter the transplant list” - says Manuela Camino, head of the Infantile Heart Transplant Unit at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital. - “We explained to the parents that there were very few possibilities because at that age there were very few very small donors. However, thanks to the immense generosity of other parents, the opportunity presented itself and a little heart arrived for Naiara ”.
And, fortunately, everything went well and now Naiara is ready for her new life thanks to the generosity of the parents of the small donor and the ability of the doctors.
"The process of research, verification of functionality and the removal of the organ went to perfection" - observes Dr. Jaurena - All thanks to the incredible help and collaboration of the professionals of the donor's hospital, with whom we work as if we were one team".
Photos: University Hospital Gregorio Marañón
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