A few days ago, we talked in TVN's “Fakty” about how much the number of kidney transplants in Poland has increased. It turns out that also livers, although this time not in Krakow, but in Warsaw. In the hospital on Banacha Street, the largest number of donations in the world are made from deceased donors. More and more from the living, because the liver, although there is one, can be divided.
Mrs. Alicja Bugajska is one of the lucky people who received a new liver last year.
– I feel great. Even when I hear that the results are improving every day, it's great – says Alicja Bugajska, a patient of the University Clinical Center in Warsaw.
It's actually great, because in 2024, doctors performed as many as 310 liver transplants at the University Clinical Center in Warsaw. So many livers have never been transplanted in one year – not only here.
The largest such center in the world
– We can say with over 99% certainty that we have become the largest center for deceased donor liver transplantation in the world. We never dreamed of this. (…) Two years ago we dreamed of 200 transplants. Now it's not 200, it's over 300 – says prof. Michał Grąt, national consultant in the field of clinical transplantology, head of the Department of General, Transplantation and Liver Surgery at the Medical University of Warsaw.
Of course, not only quantity counts, but also quality.
– What is most important is the results of liver transplantation. They are also very good and survival after transplantation exceeds 90 percent, which is observed in the best centers in the world – emphasizes Prof. Maciej Wójcicki, surgeon, transplantologist from the University Clinical Center in Warsaw.
Karolina Piątek-Świątek from Poznań, Teresa Komorowska from the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and Olena Riezanowa from Ukraine, specifically from Avdiivka – a town near Donetsk, completely destroyed and occupied by the Russians – also recently received new livers at the University Clinical Hospital in Warsaw.
– I am very happy, thank you to Poland, thank you to all the doctors for the chance to live – says Olena Rezanova.
The doctors rose to the challenge
So many livers were transplanted in a Warsaw hospital for several reasons. First, doctors are now good at transplanting inferior organs that were previously rejected. In addition, they can also divide one liver so that it is enough for two patients. Recently, they have also been performing transplants from living donors. In addition, they brought as many as 35 organs from abroad.
– Mainly the exchange is based in Lithuania, but we were also in Germany, we were in Austria, we were in Bulgaria, and we were even in Paris. Therefore, the whole of Europe is open and every year the opportunities will become better and better – predicts Krzysztof Zając, transplant coordinator from the University Clinical Center in Warsaw.
There is therefore a chance that this year there will be even more transplants, and the good that is being done here will multiply even more.
– I will not waste this gift and I thank the donor, I thank the hospital, I thank the professors and you can be sure that I will not waste this gift: I will do everything to bring a new quality to relationships and everything that lies ahead of me – says Karolina Piątek-Świątek, a patient University Clinical Center in Warsaw.
Main photo source: TVN24