Minister visits Qatar’s second lung transplant patient

Minister of Public Health HE Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari visited Qatar’s second lung transplant recipient who is recovering well from the lifesaving procedure at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Hamad General Hospital. The male patient, a 67-year-old Arab resident who has lived in Qatar his whole life, underwent the complex procedure in May which was performed by HMC’s highly skilled multi-specialty team led by Prof. Takahiro Oto, an internationally renowned expert in lung transplantation, HMC said in a press release Wednesday.A lung transplant is a surgical procedure in which a patient’s damaged lungs are replaced with lungs from a donor. These surgeries are performed on people with lung failure when all other treatment options prove ineffective. In addition to the lung transplant, a record-breaking nine kidney transplant procedures, and a liver transplant were performed in May 2022 at HGH – from seven live donors and one deceased donor.  All the transplant patients went home in good health after a relatively short stay in the hospital.  Director of Qatar Organ Donation Center (Hiba) and head of the committee supervising lung transplant program at HMC, Dr. Riadh Fadhil, said the patient was recovering well with the support of HMC’s world class multidisciplinary transplant team.“The record-breaking number of transplant procedures done within a short time with a fast recovery by patients demonstrates that Qatar’s transplant program benefits from an efficient healthcare system, skilled clinicians as well as leading edge technology and efficient health,” Dr. Riadh said.  “Of course, nothing could be done without the gracious “Gift of Life” by the living donors and the deceased donors.”“With this increase in donation and development of a new efficient successful multiorgan transplant programs, I ask all the patients in Qatar who are in need of organ transplantation to undertake their transplants in Qatar,” Dr. Riadh said.Qatar’s first lung transplant was successfully performed on a 39-year-old lady at Hamad General Hospital in June 2021. The Organ Donor Registry was launched in 2012 and has grown significantly year on year and there are nearly 500,000 people on the registry.More information about organ donation Qatar is available at www.organdonation.qa