Another “heart stopped” collection of organs and tissues at the “San Giovanni di Dio” hospital in Agrigento. This is the second time ever that this type of intervention has been perfected in the Agrigento structure. Thanks to the so-called DCD (Donation After Cardiac Death), carried out with the involvement of surgeons and healthcare workers belonging to the various hospital departments and a team from the ISMETT of Palermo, it was possible to remove the liver, kidneys and corneas from a person who died due to arrest cardiac. DCD sampling is combined with donations for brain death but, unlike the latter case, involves a series of obligations and maneuvers to be implemented quickly to guarantee the functionality of the organs. These include the need to artificially ensure blood circulation in the tissues (perfusion) and oxygenation before and after sampling. “I would like to thank you warmly the family – commented the director of the complex operational unit of anaesthesia, resuscitation and intensive care of the ‘San Giovanni di Dio’, Gerlando Fiorica – for the marked generosity demonstrated despite the dramatic nature of the moment for the loss of the joint person. I also thank all the healthcare workers of the complex operating units of radiology, clinical pathology, cardiology, ophthalmology, transfusion service who have made possible, with their timely multidisciplinary commitment, a new donation and, consequently, have contributed to offering new hopes to some patients in waiting for transplant. The work of Dr. Francesco Di Lascio, responsible for our Intensive Care unit, of Dr. Calogero Contino, resuscitator manager who followed the entire complex process, of Dr. Emanuela Solombrino, psychologist of the Sicily Regional Transplant Center, on duty in our department, was fundamental for more than ten years, to support and support the patients’ families” and all the operators in the operating block. I would also like to thank Dr. Rosa Provenzano, local coordinator for the ‘procurement of organs and tissues’, and the entire team of doctors, nurses and OSS of the intensive care unit”. Doctor Fiorica’s gratitude was widely echoed by that of the extraordinary commissioner ASP, Giuseppe Capodiecifor which: “the result of the intervention carried out, on the one hand, implements the possibilities of multi-organ harvesting in our hospital structure, on the other hand it contributes to widespread diffusion of the culture of donation thanks to gestures of extraordinary generosity such as that carried out by the family of the deceased”.
