British doctors at a hospital in London have successfully carried organs transplantation in an infant donor to two newborns in need in 2014, marking the first ever occasion when such an organ transplant procedure has took place in the United Kingdom.
The organ transplant procedures in the infants have been performed in Australia, Germany and the United States.
The donor was a baby girl who was born with an oxygen-starved brain during pregnancy. After the doctors confirmed the baby is not going to make it, her parents agreed to donate their child’s organs to two infants having kidney dysfunction.
Dr. Gaurav Atreja, a neonatologist at Imperial College Healthcare, said, “When we explained to the baby girl’s parents that their child could save some lives, they were only too keen…They came back wanting to speak to me again within a couple of hours. They didn’t require any persuading, It’s not that is something we would ever try to do. It’s a big decision that has to surely come from the parents and that too without any pressure.”
The children’s organs are not only suitable for other children who are in its dire need, but the organs can also be transplanted successfully into adults.
“This case has set a milestone in the care of newborns in the UK. We hope that neonatal units across the UK will actively start thinking about this noble cause, which makes the grieving family’s journey easier and has the potential to transform another life,” the scientists wrote in the research paper.
The findings of the study were published this week in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood.
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