Domino kidney transplant helps put Spain on health map

Source: The Olive Press

THANKS to a ‘good Samaritan’ a Granada hospital has been involved in the first kidney ‘domino’ transplant in Spain, securing the nation’s place as world leader in organ transplants.

A domino transplant is a rare procedure involving the transfer of organs from several live donors where a patient who needs a new organ gives up one of his own.

According to the National Transplant Organization (ONT), the chain was started by a Catalan priest – the so-called ‘samaritan’ – who gave permission for his kidney to be used in a complete stranger.

In turn the recipient’s wife then donated her kidney, which was flown to Granada and implanted in another man, whose wife then donated a kidney to a woman in Barcelona.

The successive operations were carried out in Virgen de les Nieves Hospital in Granada and the Puigvert Foundation in Barcelona.