Vietnam HCMC’s Hospital Performs First Heart Transplant Successfully

The Cho Ray Hospital in Vietnam’s southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City on June 16 informed the recovery of a patient, who underwent the first heart transplant conducted by the hospital on May 14, state media reported. This was the first heart transplant surgery which Cho Ray performed by itself, after four surgeries with the collaboration with the Hanoi City-based Vietnam-Germany Hospital before. The patient was a 47-year-old man whose heart getting disease and needs a transplant. He luckily received a donated heart from a dead-brain donor who was a woman in Hanoi. The heart transplant surgery lasted about three hours. Assoc.Prof-Dr. Tran Quyet Tien, vice president of Cho Ray Hospital informed that the health of the heart-transplant patient is much better and recovering stably since the surgery. He added the surgery is special because of the differences in genders and blood groups between the donor and the patient. There have been 50 flights to transport organ donations from Hanoi to HCMC and the central province of Thua Thien-Hue and vice versa during five years, according to a survey. (Thanh Nien, VOH, Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, Tin Tuc)