Riyadh: Five patients have been given a new lease on life after the family of a 24-year-old patient, who was declared brain dead after a car accident, agreed to donate his vital organs for transplantation.
The 10-hour surgeries, which took place at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Riyadh, saw the five patients, who were suffering from organ failure, separately receive a small bowel, liver, heart and kidney from the man.
The surgeries took place simultaneously with the help of expert surgeons who worked side-by-side to perform the procedure, Arab News reported.
“These sophisticated surgeries can be only achieved, simultaneously, in a few advanced medical centres around the world, as they require highly qualified and expert medical teams with a well-equipped infrastructure that includes modern operating rooms, lab, radiology and other specialised medical equipment,” KFSHRC chief Dr Majid Al Fayyadh said.
Surgical teams worked all night to retrieve the organs from the donor, while a different set of experts worked on transplanting them to the five patients, he said.
The five patients were a 36-year-old female; a 34-year-old male; a 60-year-old female; a 63-year-old male and a 23-month-old baby.