King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre has restored hope for three patients (two men and a girl) of various ages suffering from heart muscle weakness and failure, after successfully transplanting living hearts from donors in Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, and Riyadh to the hospital for the three patients within less than 24 hours. The journey to regain hope for the three patients began with medical teams from the Cardiac Centre at "the Specialist" traveling to Abu Dhabi and Jeddah to retrieve two hearts from brain-dead donors, which were then flown to the capital Riyadh.
A medical team also travel to King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard in Riyadh to retrieve the third heart, which was then transported via ambulances with the cooperation of the Riyadh Traffic Department, facilitating the swift arrival of the three hearts in a short timeframe, supported by traffic patrols escorting the ambulances from King Khalid International Airport to the hospital, where the three transplant surgeries were completed in less than 24 hours.
**First Patient**
The first patient was a nine-year-old girl suffering from heart muscle weakness. Her life was saved by the implantation of an artificial pump in March of the previous year. She remained hospitalized due to her inability to rely on the pump while waiting for a donor. In coordination with the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation and the National Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Program (Hayat) in the UAE, a matching donor was found. Consequently, the medical team traveled from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi and performed the heart retrieval from the brain-dead donor at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. The heart was then flown to King Khalid International Airport and transported by ambulance to the hospital in Riyadh, where it was transplanted into the girl by a medical team led by Dr. Zuhair Al-Halis, Senior Consultant in Cardiac Surgery. The girl is now under continuous medical follow-up.
**Second Patient**
At the same time, another medical team went to King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard in Jeddah to retrieve the heart from a brain-dead donor for a patient in his forties. The heart transplant was successfully performed by a medical team led by Dr. Firas Khalil, Consultant in Cardiac Surgery and Head of the Heart Transplant Program at "the Specialist".
**Third Patient**
The third patient, a 41-year-old man, suffered from stage four heart failure and had previously received an artificial pump a year ago. When a matching brain-dead donor became available at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, the medical team retrieved the heart and transported it to the hospital, where Dr. Firas Khalil's team successfully performed the transplant. The patient is currently under medical follow-up.
Time is a critical factor in the success of heart transplant operations, as per medical standards, the duration between the heart's retrieval from the donor and its transplantation into the recipient should not exceed five hours to ensure transplant success. This presents an additional logistical challenge, especially when the brain-dead donor is in different regions either inside or outside the kingdom, making every minute of delay crucial to the success of the procedure.
**Complex and Precise Operations**
Conducting these heart transplant surgeries was not merely a medical procedure; it exemplified cooperation that encompassed completing all regulatory procedures, obtaining the necessary approvals from the deceased’s relatives, and coordinating between medical teams and field groups in different countries, regions, and hospitals to restore hope to the patients. With this success, "the Specialist" reaffirmed its exceptional capabilities in conducting complex and delicate operations, overcoming various challenges to bring hope and life to many patients and their families, while mobilizing all efforts with relevant authorities to save lives.
It is noteworthy that King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre was ranked first in the Middle East and Africa and 20th globally for the second consecutive year among the world's top 250 academic healthcare institutions, and the highest valued health brand in the kingdom and the Middle East, according to "Brand Finance" for 2024. Additionally, it was ranked among the top 250 hospitals in the world by Newsweek magazine in the same year.
