Livorno, 9 May 2024 – A night of overwork, between the pain of a life that is gone and the hope for four others that can continue. It is the night of May 2nd, at the Livorno hospital, where a complex trial was held organ donation with a stopped heart which allowed four patients on the transplant waiting list to be given a new lease on life. Following the notification of the potential donor by the intensive care unit directed by Paolo Roncucci to the local hospital coordination for procurement, directed by Elena D’Imporzanoit was possible to start the donation process, realizing the donation wish demonstrated by the patient’s relatives.
The complex care path envisaged by the regional controlled donation program involved the intervention of the mobile ECMO team of the Cuore di Cuore hospital Massdriven by Stefano Antonelli which, by using the extracorporeal circulation technique, ensured – after the patient’s death – to maintain the functionality of the organs and allow the subsequent transplant.
“The event – underlines the director of the Intensive Care Unit of Livorno Paolo Roncucci – is of particular importance because it is the first time, in our vast area experience, that a controlled donation process allows the transplantation of four organ recipients, one of which is a lung”.
“These results – explain Elena D’Imporzano and Lucia Luzzi, respectively hospital coordinator for donation activities and responsible for the controlled donation program – are first of all the result of the ethical sense and generosity of our citizens and their families. We believe it is our duty to express special thanks to the donor’s family, to whom our thoughts go out, and to all the professionals, of every professional profile, for their excellent collaboration”.
“I would like to remind you – adds the coordinator of the donation and transplant activities of the North West Tuscany Local Health Authority Paolo Lopane – the inter-company nature of the event which saw five distinct teams of professionals from 4 healthcare companies, including the University Hospital of Padua, simultaneously engaged in the operating room of the Livorno hospital, who demonstrated, in addition to their high professional skills , an optimal level of multi-professional and multidisciplinary integration”.
“It is a privilege – underlines the Donation and Transplant coordinator of Monasterio, Stefano Antonelli – to contribute to the realization of this regional and national program with the professionals of the ECMO team of the Ospedale del Cuore di Massa, directed by Paolo Del Sarto, committed for some years now, in collaboration with the North West Tuscany Local Health Authority, the development of the regional network of controlled donation with ECMO mobile”.
