In Lviv, a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman underwent her fourth kidney transplant. This is the first time she received an organ in Ukraine

Author:
Olha Bereziuk
Date:

In Lviv, doctors of the Transplantology Center transplanted a kidney to 39-year-old Maryna Besarabchyk from the Zhytomyr region for the fourth time. Before that, she was transplanted abroad three times.

The First Medical Association of Lviv writes about this.

Besarabchyk comes from the city of Korostyshiv. Her kidneys failed when the girl was only 10 years old. She was transplanted abroad three times. The first two kidneys did not survive, but the third organ served Maryna for 20 years.

When the kidney stopped working three years ago, its function was replaced by the hemodialysis procedure. And this means that the woman was literally chained to hospitals.

"This is not life, but existence. You canʼt go anywhere, but you have to lie on dialysis for three hours every other day, where you are constantly pricked with large needles. Time passes, and a healthy organ is still not found. It eats away, because it seems that the body canʼt take it and this may be your last dialysis," Maryna shares.

On World Kidney Day, March 14, a story about Maryna appeared in the news. And the very next day, the YEDIST automated system selected her as a recipient for a kidney transplant from a posthumous donor.

The life-saving transplant was performed by surgeons of the Transplantology Center of the First Medical Association of Lviv. The kidney started working just on the operating table. Already on the 12th day after the transplant, Maryna was discharged from the hospital. For now, the patient needs observation and therefore temporarily lives in Lviv. Above all, she dreams of going to her native Korostyshev as soon as possible.

Organ transplantation operations in Ukraine have become possible since April 2019, when the corresponding law came into force. In particular, it regulates the transplantation of organs from a deceased person. In addition, a section will appear in the "Action" application where you can leave a statement of consent to become a donor after death.

During this time , a childʼs heart was transplanted for the first time, then a one-year-old child was transplanted with a liver from a posthumous donor for the first time, and later — a heart-lung complex was transplanted for the first time. In 2021, doctors performed 234 transplants in Ukrainian hospitals — this is more than during the entire period of the countryʼs independence.