Doha: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is set to offer heart transplants after the success of its kidney, liver and lung transplant programmes, a senior official said.
Preparations are underway to perform the first heart transplantation in Qatar this year, Medical Director of Hamad General Hospital and Director of Qatar Center for Organ Transplantation, Dr. Yousef Al Maslamani, told The Peninsula.
“We are working to introduce the heart transplant programme this year,” he said, adding that the organ transplant programme aims to perform better than last year.
A heart transplant is a surgery to remove the diseased heart from a person and replace it with a healthy one from an organ donor.
“Last year, 2021, was the best year for organ donation and transplantation. More than 140 living donors came to donate for their family members. And among them 31 were able to donate an organ upon meeting the criteria for transplant. Also 13 were deceased donors in 2021,” he added.
In 2021, a total of 48 kidney transplants, 7 liver and 1 lung transplant were performed.
The organ transplant programme reached a new milestone in 2021, with the first successful lung transplant for a patient with a severe respiratory condition. “The multidisciplinary team is doing great job in evaluation of patients and preparing the two patients who are on the waiting list to get a compatible suitable lung donors,” said Dr. Al Maslamani. A total of 31 kidney transplants were done in 2019, while only 3-4 operations were performed in 2020 due to the pandemic.
In Qatar, kidney transplantation from living donors is performed only among family members. The first kidney transplant surgery in Qatar was performed in 1986 and the Doha Organ Donation Accord has become the cornerstone for the development of organ transplantation services in Qatar. Only 10 days following the official opening of the Qatar Center for Organ Transplantation in late 2011, the first liver transplant surgery was successfully performed in Qatar.
There are currently more than 480,000 people on Qatar’s organ donor registry.
An organ transplant can be a life-saving procedure. It can also significantly improve the quality of life for someone with chronic organ failure.
