RIYADH, 14 April 2004 — The King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center successfully transplanted two lungs and a heart into a 32-year-old Emirati woman yesterday.
The 36-hour operation on Huda Rashid Obaid was carried out by a team of specialists led by Dr. Saleh Al-Dammas, medical director of the lung transplant unit at KFSH.
The operation went smoothly, Dr. Al-Dammas said. “The patient is now recovering in the ICU and, hopefully, will be discharged within 48 hours.”
He said Huda had been suffering from an end-stage pulmonary disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The disease results in chronic inflammation that ends up scarring the lungs. It also causes pulmonary hypertension, leading to the build-up of high pressure inside the blood vessels, which can result in heart failure.
“The patient had reached a point where she was unable to discharge her daily chores. She visited several hospitals in North America and Europe, where she was told that she needs a transplant. The problem, however, was the long waiting list.
“Huda was told she should contact KFSH in Riyadh, where she arrived two months ago,” Dr. Al-Dammas said. “Luckily for her, we had a donor whose blood group matched hers. A surgical team flew by medivac to the Eastern Province, where they evaluated the donor and harvested the organs — both lungs and the heart — in an operation lasting 36 hours.”
Dr. Al-Dammas said the etiology of the disease was still unknown. There is no effective treatment for 80 percent of the cases. “Patients with this disease eventually progress to end-stage where their lungs become so scarred that they are unable to provide the body with oxygen,” he said.
The main problem with transplants is limited donors. “That leads to patients remaining on the waiting list for years. And many of them die before any donor is available. So it is important to raise awareness through the media to drive home the point that they can help to save many lives. They could sign an agreement with hospitals to donate their organs before they die.”
Criteria for identifying candidates for transplantation are strict. “Currently, we have eight patients on the waiting list who are very sick. On a weekly basis we evaluate five to seven candidates for transplantation.
“We expect the list to become very long very soon,” Dr. Al-Dammas added.
