A miracle transplant, like an action movie. How was a life saved in Iasi with a liver brought with TAROM from Bucharest?

Last Friday, a 33-year-old woman from Galati County was brought to the Emergency Department, initially diagnosed with liver failure caused by acute fulminant hepatitis. The woman was brought into a coma, in extremely serious condition, and was urgently transferred to the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, in an attempt by the doctors to save her life.

Mother of four children

The young woman, mother of 4 children, seemed healthy and without any medical problem until the current crisis started. But later the doctors discovered that she had just lost a 5th child, being pregnant but not carrying the pregnancy to term, and that she had taken, without consulting a doctor, a much higher dose of paracetamol than the maximum admitted. All these repeated shocks to the body caused the woman’s liver to stop working almost at all. And the doctors discovered that the liver could no longer be recovered after one day at the ATI and triggered the “zero emergency” procedure – if they hadn’t found a compatible liver somewhere in the country, most likely the young woman would not be alive today .

Only the chance of the young woman made it possible for a brain-dead patient to be found at the Bucharest University Hospital, whose family had agreed to organ donation and with whom there was an apparent compatibility. But the story of saving the young woman’s life was just at the beginning, because the distance between Iaşi and Bucharest was too great to cross with an ambulance and the question of the organ’s viability arose.

“The transplant alert mechanism was triggered at the national level: thus, the transplant coordinator here, from the “St. Spiridon”, identified the possibility of harvesting an organ from a brain-dead patient from Bucharest University Hospital. A surgeon from Iaşi went there, he traveled by plane, and together with the national transplant coordinator he harvested the organ”, declared Prof. Dr. Diana Cimpoeşu, UPU-SMURD Iasi chief physician and spokesperson of the medical unit.

The liver “flew” to Iasi in a refrigerator

Not only the trip to Bucharest was made with an airliner, from Tarom, but also the trip back with the organ prepared for transplantation. In fact, in a series of photos sent to the media by the medical team, you can see the refrigerated case in which the organ was placed carefully placed in the hold, while the surgeon was on the Bucharest – Iaşi route.

He arrived in the capital of Moldova in record time, and on Sunday, after 2 p.m., the operation had already begun, being coordinated by prof.dr. Cristian Lupaşcu, and the Intensive Care team was led by Dr. Mihaela Blaj. After the successful completion of the operation, the young woman is under the care of gastroenterologist Dr. Irina Gârleanu, to discover how she will manage to live in the future as a transplant patient, what are the restrictions she must follow and what she will be able to do.

The evolution after the surgical intervention was a very good one, now following several days of intensive care to see how the body will adapt to the new organ.

“We hope that after these days the evolution will be favorable. It is very important for the patient, for her family and for the whole team here, from «St. Spyridon”. From the experience of many such cases, such a condition has a very high risk of death. Without a liver, the human body cannot function, and this function can only be fulfilled by another organ, from another donor, as happened in this situation as well”, pointed out Prof. dr. Diana Cimpoesu.

A special device was also used to see if the organ is viable

Dr. Raluca Neagu, regional transplant coordinator in Moldova, explained that this is the second liver transplant in Iaşi since 2023 and that in total 30 such interventions were made in the capital of Moldova. There were several firsts related to this event: the fact that a liver was urgently requested, the fact that such an organ was found available, that everything was resolved in 24 hours, but also that a new device called Liver Assist was used . The latter checks the viability of a liver before transplantation to see its condition.

“For example, there was a sample last week from Neurosurgery, and thanks to the machine we identified that the liver is not very good and cannot be used. Not everyone is lucky enough to receive a liver in a timely manner, as you know, the donor situation is not very good at the moment and never has been. It’s a matter of everyone’s fate, and a transplant totally changes your habits: the patient will be monitored for the rest of her life,” stated Dr. Raluca Neagu.