Following the generous decision of a 62 y.o. man’s family to give life and the excellent result of the ICU doctors of the Hospital of Patras, the transplant chain began, with two kidney grafts being offered to two recipients at the G.H.A. «Evangelismos», next to the relevant procedures under the coordination of the Greek Transplant Organisation.
The total of the Hospital’s 1st Surgery Clinic & Organ Transplantation Unit, under its Coordinating Director, Dr. Spyros Drakopoulos, participated in the long, double transplant procedure. Just before midnight, Dr. Vasileios Drakopoulos and Dr Nikolaos Roukounakis began with the graft preparation process (back table). Shortly after, the first graft was transplanted by Dr. Vassilis Vougas, during the first transplantation, which was concluded around 5 am, while Dr. Vasileios Drakopoulos and Dr. Nikolaos Roukounakis, assisted by Eleni Daskalaki and Maria-Christina Papadopoulou, led the second transplantation, where a woman aged 65 – suffering from chronic kidney failure – received the 2nd graft.
Thus, with Sotirios Voulgaris taking care of all stages of preoperative procedures, along with the valuable support of the Anaesthesiology Department and the Nursing Staff, the team effort of all members of the 1st Surgery Clinic & Organ Transplantation Unit and the unwearied efforts of the Hospital’s Coordinating Office led by Dimitrios Pistolas & Aikaterini Balaska, a very demanding double transplant procedure was concluded in less than 12 hours.
Everyone’s attention and care is now focusing on the proper function of the grafts. Countless “thanks” to the donor’s family for their life-saving decision!
