Doctors working at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City successfully performed a heart transplant on a male patient on June 16 after procuring the heart from a recently-deceased woman in Hanoi.

On May 13, Cho Ray hospital doctors received the heart sent by the Hanoi-based-Viet Duc Hospital. The donor is a brain dead 47-year old woman who had a traffic accident. 

The heart was later transplanted into the 47-year-old man who had been suffering from heart problems for eight years. He has been going through phase four of heart failure and there was little hope that he could survive in the long term. 

After receiving the transplant from a woman the same age as him from Hanoi on May 14, his heart functions are now stable.

The male patient, who receives heart from a deceased woman
in Hanoi, is in sound condition 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quyet Tien, Deputy Director of Cho Ray Hospital, attributed the success of the operation to the smooth co-ordination that occurred among doctors at Cho Ray Hospital, Hanoi’s Viet Duc Hospital, the National Coordination Center for Organ Transplantation, the aviation sector, along with other relevant forces. In total, the procedure took three hours to complete. 

Dr. Nguyen Tri Thuc, Director of Cho Ray Hospital, stated that the hospital has so far performed five successful heart transplants after using the vital organs of recently-deceased donors. 

The overall cost of the surgery is estimated to be nearly VND500 million, of which the man’s health insurance paid for over VND200 million, while the remaining amount was sourced from both charitable benefactors and Cho Ray Hospital.