On June 4th 1992, the first kidney transplant was successfully carried out at 103 Military Hospital, marking a milestone in Vietnam's organ transplant techniques.
“The first transplant was really hard, but it gathered the best surgeons of Vietnam and was supported by international experts in the field”, Associate Professor Dr. Hoang Manh An - Former Director of 103 Military Hospital, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Society of Organ Transplantation said.
Vietnam has succeeded in kidney, liver and heart transplants. From 1992 to 2010, these transplants involved living donors and only since 2010 have donors been brain dead people.
September 2015 was also an important point for organ transplants where donors and recipients were located at almost opposite ends of the country, with the donation from a brain dead person at Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City and the recipients located at the Vietnam - Germany Hospital and 103 Military Hospital in Hanoi.
“The most important thing is that the heart, lung and liver must be transplanted within a certain period of time after being removed from the donors. If the plane had arrived late, all would have been for nothing. We couldn't allow that to happen”, Dr. .Du Thi Ngoc Thu who is the Head of Organ Transplantation Co-ordination Department, Cho Ray Hospital –said.
On January 21st 2017, the first lung transplant with a living donor was carried out successfully at 103 Military Hospital. The recipient was 7 year old Lý Chương Bình in Hà Giang Province, while the donors were his father and uncle.
“The donors and recipients must first meet immunity requirements. Anesthetics must also be done well, and joining blood vessels is also a difficult job. The organs must be made clean before transplant. Just a minor mistake would ruin all efforts”, Major General Do Quyet, the Director of Vietnam Military Medical University said.
There are currently 17 medical facilities eligible to perform organ transplantation in Vietnam. The country in the past 5 years have successfully carried out nearly 1,300 organ transplants, and intends to develop bowel and skin transplants to save the lives of many more people in the future.
