A 12-month-old Spanish baby girl has become the world’s first recipient and survivor of a successful intestine transplant from a donor who died of heart failure, Madrid’s La Paz Hospital said last week, adding that she also received a new liver, stomach, spleen and pancreas.
“The child, who is now 17-months-old, has now been discharged and is in perfect health at home with her parents,” it said in a statement.
Reuters reports that Spain is a global leader in organ transplants, with more than 102 of them per 1m inhabitants performed in 2021, a rate only surpassed by the United States.
Emma, the infant, had been diagnosed with intestinal failure when she was just a month-old because her intestine was too short, and her health rapidly deteriorated until receiving the multivisceral transplant.
Most transplanted organs stem from donors who have suffered brain death but retain a heartbeat, as this keeps the organs intact. However, since the development of modern asystole donations, the technique’s popularity has grown to make up about one-third of all donations in Spain, La Paz said.
Asystole donations proceed from a dead person after doctors confirm the absence of a heartbeat and breathing functions. The donor’s organs are then artificially preserved, despite the lack of oxygenated blood, through a system known as Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
What made Emma’s case special was the difficulty in preserving an intestine from asystole donation due to the digestive organ’s characteristics.
Reuters article – Spanish baby gets pioneering intestine transplant (Open access)
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