PKLI makes historic transplants to save two lives

LAHORE: Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and Research Centre (PKLI&RC) made history by performing one kidney transplant and one liver transplant the same day to save two lives in Pakistan.

The liver and kidney grafts were initially transported via helicopter to Dubai where the UAE Organ Donation and Transplantation and UAE Ministry of Health team airlifted the two organs in a specially hired five-seater commercial jet to hand over them to the PKLI&RC transplant team.

Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid welcomed the UAE team at Lahore Airport where a team from Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (PHOTA) was also present. 

The PKLI&RC kidney and liver transplant teams successfully completed both surgeries late at night to save two lives. Both recipients have made a remarkable recovery and were discharged home in a healthy condition.

This whole exercise has been an astonishing act of coordination and teamwork where more than 20 teams from both UAE and Pakistan worked day and night to ensure perfect matching of the donor and recipients, preparation of the recipients for operation and to ensure that the organs are retrieved and transported and transplanted within the time frame before they become useless. Later, a second kidney of the deceased was also transplanted in UAE to save third life.