In a significant achievement, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC) has performed 5 simultaneous organ transplantations; small bowel, liver, heart and kidney within 10 hours for 5 patients suffering from organ failure, of whom one was a 23 months' old baby. The family of 24-year-old man, declared brain-dead following a car crash, saved the lives of 5 patients, by generously and unconditionally donating all the vital organs. As always, the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) seamless and expeditious coordination played a noteworthy role in this huge endeavor. On Thursday evening October 15, 2020, expert surgeons at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre- Riyadh worked side-by-side, in 7 operating rooms simultaneously, with experts from Nursing, Anesthesiology, Radiology and Pathology & Laboratory and other specialties in order to provide the close attention these patients needed during and after surgery. "These sophisticated surgeries can be only achieved, simultaneously, in a few advanced medical centers around the world, as they require a highly qualified and expert medical teams with a well-equipped infrastructure that includes modern operating rooms, lab, radiology and other specialized medical equipment" proudly stated Dr. Majid Al Fayyadh, Chief Executive Officer of KFSH&RC. Dr. Al Fayyadh went on to explain that the surgical teams worked all the night starting with the organ retrieval from the brain dead donor, while another surgical teams were readily available to immediately transplant a heart for 36-year-old female, small bowel for 34-year-old male, kidney for 60-year-old female and both a 23 months old baby and the 63-year-old male who received the split liver organ. "We had two other surgical teams ready to perform pancreas and lungs transplants but unfortunately after a through medical review of those organs they were found inadequate for transplantation" he added. CEO of KFSH&RC indicated that when it comes to organ transplantation, KFSH&RC is one of the few medical centers in the world that performs small bowel transplantation; in addition to being a leading medical center in the Middle East in conducting split liver surgery and transplant them to two different patients; as well as a leader among the international centers that perform the highest number of heart transplantations annually. The medical teams in KFSH&RC confirmed that all 5 patients who underwent the organs transplantations are in a good health and most of them just departed the hospital to their homes and regular medical follow-up is arranged.
