Multiple organ harvesting from a forty-one year old young man who died in a road accident in Ragusa.
The heart, the liver, the kidneys removed and already transplanted, the corneas sent to the Mestre bank awaiting transplant
A multi-organ harvest from a donor deceased due to brain death was carried out in recent days at the resuscitation center of the Arnas Garibaldi in Catania directed by Dr. Daniela Di Stefano.
This was possible thanks to the generosity of a young patient, 41 years old, who arrived at the hospital in very serious clinical conditions due to a head injury following a road accident in Ragusa.
Once brain death was confirmed, consent to organ donation was requested from the family, who, keeping faith with the generosity of their relative, did not hesitate to immediately express their consent.
The activity of the regional and national transplant network began immediately, allowing the allocation of organs and responding to various emergency requests. The following were deemed suitable for transplant: the heart, liver and kidneys removed and transplanted, all by surgeons from Ismett, and corneas taken from the sampling center of the Arnas Garibaldi ophthalmology unit and sent to the Mestre bank.
It was a particularly delicate and highly complex case, given the young age and the various national emergency requests, having requested the collaboration of various Arnas Garibaldi Operating Units involved in the organ donation process, which despite their activities whether emergency or elective, have complied with requests for consultancy or tests in a very short time: the intensive care unit of the Garibaldi-Centro, with all the medical workers, nurses, OSS and auxiliaries; Neurology, Radiology, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Clinical Pathology, Immunohaematology and Transfusion Medicine, the operating room staff, the surgical team, the healthcare staff of the local Arnas corporate coordination for organ and tissue donation.
The multi-organ harvesting was performed by all the teams of transplant surgeons at the operating block of the emergency department, arrived from Palermo.
It was therefore a complex “team” work process, which involved at the same time the General Management, the Corporate Health Management, and the police forces, which allowed the relay, from the hospital to the heli-base of the Cannizzaro, of the surgical teams after having removed the organs, given the emergency conditions.
Also noteworthy is the work of the Ragusa Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office of Catania, as well as that of the medical examiner appointed by the Catania Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, all involved in the authorization of organ donation, in full respect of the choice of family members.
The entire donation process was coordinated by the Sicily Regional Coordinator, Dr. Giorgio Battaglia, by the Crt Sicilia operational coordination contact, Dr. Antonino Scafidi and by the ARNAS company local coordinator Dr. Ilenia Bonanno, as well as by the coordination nurses, Dr. Francesco Piazza and Dr. Sissi Scollo.
