Organ transplantation in Vietnam, despite difficulties, has recorded numerous achievements this year, giving hope to thousands of patients nationwide.


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According to Trinh Hong Son, director of the Vietnam National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplantation under the Ministry of Health, in Hanoi’s major hospitals alone, about 6,000 patients need a kidney transplant and more than 1,500 patients are on the waiting list for liver transplant. Over 6,000 people need cornea replacement, while heart and lung transplants are critical to save hundreds of others.

In Vietnam, organ donation is yet to be accepted by the mass, hence a scarcity of tissues and organs for transplantation, particularly those from brain-dead patients. As of August 31, the number of brain-dead and circulatory-dead donors reached 223, accounting for 6.6 percent of the total donors. The majority of organs used in transplantation in Vietnam are from living donors.

On October 16, a tissue bank under the Hanoi-based Viet Duc Hospital, the first of its kind in Vietnam, became fully operational. To date, it has preserved nearly 1,000 skull fragments, heart valves, sinews, and blood vessels. 

On December 12, nearly 500 doctors and medical staff from Viet Duc hospital, without the help of foreign experts, carried out four organ transplantations simultaneously to four patients. All the organs were donated by a brain-dead man from the northern province of Ninh Binh.

The first case was the transplant of two lungs on a 17-year-old patient, which lasted 14 hours. Vietnam has so far successfully carried out three transplants of lungs but this is the first time Vietnamese doctors performed the transplant of two lungs at the same time successfully. 

The donor’s heart was used for a 60-year-old patient, the liver for a 63-year-old woman and one kidney for a 41-year-old man.

The other kidney was transported to the Nhi Dong 2 Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for another kidney transplant on a 15-year-old boy. 

With this success, Viet Duc Hospital set a new record of the number of surgeries to take and transplant the most organs at the same time.

Vietnam has so far conducted 3,200 kidney transplants, 105 liver transplants, 27 heart transplants and only three cases of lung transplants.

HCM City: more than 300 donors register at organ donation event


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People signed up as organ donors at a registration event held at Giac Ngo Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City on December 23 


More than 300 people signed up as organ donors at a registration event held at Giac Ngo Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City on December 23.

The event was organised by the Vietnam National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplantation under the Ministry of Health and the Buddhism Today Foundation (BTF).

Trinh Hong Son, director of the centre, said there are some 16,000 patients in Vietnam in need of organs and 300,000 in need of corneas.

He said the centre is working with agencies to raise public awareness of the necessity of organ donation for scientific research and to save lives.

Venerable Thich Nhat Tu, head of the Giac Ngo Pagoda who is also chairman of the BTF, said the fund and the centre has held the event six times, with more than 2,000 people registered. 

In 2018 alone, the number of donors, which included monks, Buddhists followers and people from all walks of life, was recorded at 1,000 after two registration events. Some families saw three or four members registering at the same time.

Cao Thi Le Hang, who heard about the event from other Buddhist followers, travelled from the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau to the city to register. 

“My parents not only support me but also want to join me. Due to poor health, they can’t travel this time and will register at the next event,” she said.