Four heart transplant operations have been conducted in Kazakhstan this year, said Director General of the National Scientific Medical Centre Abai Baigenzhin at the First Congress of the Turkic World Transplantation Society held May 20-22 in Astana.
“According to the official data for 2014, 138 people in Kazakhstan need a heart transplantation every year, about 250-300 need liver transplants, 1,384 people new kidneys, 37 patients are awaiting a new pancreas and five people new lungs. At the same time, since 2012 Kazakhstan has performed 445 kidney transplantations, 76 liver and 21 heart transplant operations. Eleven of such transplantations have been done during the past four months of the current year,” he said during his speech at the congress.
The National Coordinating Centre for Transplantation of Organs and its regional centres and offices in Astana and Almaty have been established to ensure coordination of the country’s transplant services, noted Baigenzhin. The country has 37 donor hospitals and nine transplant centres licensed to conduct transplantations.
The country has also created a unified electronic register of donors and recipients which automates the process of creating the list of those who are awaiting the operation. The website www.transplant.kz also provides information about donation and transplantation procedures and allows patients to consult with medical professionals.
According to famous Kazakh heart surgeon Yury Pya, the country is experiencing a shortage of donor organs, as society is not ready to accept the practice of voluntary organ donations. Most donors are living relatives of patients who need an urgent transplant. In turn, the cadaveric donation is not as highly developed in the country and for this reason, a large number of healthy organs that could save many lives get buried, he said.
“We need to talk about that openly again and again, because there is no other way to change the situation. Every minute a person dies because of the absence of needed organs for transplantation. On the other hand, every minute people die on the roads or because of household injuries and their bodies go into the ground. Our objective is to connect these two issues in order to help people who need help and who can be saved,” said Pya.
The doctor also spoke about an upcoming, complex heart-lung operation that he will conduct for the first time in his professional practice.
