RIYADH: King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSHRC) restored hope to three patients — a child and two men– of varying ages, suffering from heart failure and weakened heart muscles, following successfully transferring viable hearts from donors in Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, and Riyadh to the hospital and transplanting them into the 3 patients within 24 hours, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
According to the SPA, the journey of restoring hope for the three patients started with the dedicated medical teams from the KFSHRC Heart Center traveling to Abu Dhabi and Jeddah, where suitable brain-dead donors were available to provide hearts. These life-saving organs were then shifted by private aircraft to Riyadh. Another medical team from KFSHRC was also dispatched to King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) in Riyadh to procure the third heart from a suitable brain-dead donor.
The hearts were then rapidly shifted by ambulances, with the support of the Riyadh Traffic Department, which expedited the transfer from King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) and KAMC to KFSHRC, the SPA reported. Within 24 hours, all three hearts were procured, shifted, and transplanted successfully at KFSHRC, demonstrating swift and effective coordination.
The first patient, a nine-year-old girl suffering from heart muscle weakness, had her life saved via the implantation of an artificial pump in March. She remained hospitalized, unable to depend on the pump and waiting for a matching donor. A suitable donor was also found in coordination with the UAE’s Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation and the National Program for Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissue (HAYAT), the SPA reported. Accordingly, KFSHRC’s team visited to Abu Dhabi to procure the donor’s heart at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
The heart was then flown to KKIA and shifted by ambulance to KFSHRC in Riyadh, where it was successfully transplanted into the kid by a medical team led by Dr. Zuhair Al-Halees, the senior consultant cardiac surgeon. The child is presently under continuous medical observation.
Simultaneously, another medical team visited to KAMC in Jeddah to procure the heart from another brain-dead donor. The second patient, a forty-year-old man, was suffering from end-stage heart disease, and his life was rescued by implanting a temporary pump. Then, at a later phase, he has received a durable artificial pump, which lasted 7 years. A matching donor heart was also identified, then shifted to Riyadh and successfully transplanted into this patient by a medical team led by Dr. Feras Khaliel, a consultant cardiac surgeon and head of the Heart Transplant Program at KFSHRC. Now, the patient is stable, mobilizing well, eating, and communicating with his family.
The third patient, a 41-year-old man, was also suffering from fourth-degree heart muscle failure and had an artificial pump implanted a year ago. When a matching brain-dead donor was found at KAMC in Riyadh, a medical team procured the heart and shifted it to KFSHRC, where Dr. Khaliel led the transplant surgery. The surgery was very successful, and the patient is currently under medical observation and in stable condition.
Timing is important for the success of heart transplants, as medical standards need that the period between heart procurement from the donor and transplantation into the patient should be at most five hours to ensure the transplant’s success, the SPA reported. This poses an additional logistical challenge, especially when the brain-dead donor is located in different regions within or outside the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia (KSA), making every minute’s delay critical to the transplant’s success, according to the SPA.
The heart transplant procedures were not only medical interventions but also a testament to collaboration, which involved completing regulatory procedures, obtaining approvals from the donors’ families, and coordinating between field and medical teams across nations, regions, and hospitals to restore hope to the patients.
With this success, KFSHRC reaffirms its exceptional abilities in performing precise and complex operations, overcoming many challenges to bring hope and life to many patients and their families, and harnessing all efforts and measures with relevant official to save lives.
KFSHRC was ranked first in the Middle East and Africa and 20th globally in the list of the world’s top 250 academic medical centers for the 2nd consecutive year. It was recognized as the most valuable healthcare brand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Middle East, according to the 2024 Brand Finance rankings. Moreover, in the same year, Newsweek magazine also ranked it among the world’s best 250 hospitals.
