Ukraine performs its first lung transplant in a child at Kyiv Heart Institute
A 13-year-old girl from Cherkasy received a double lung transplant at the Heart Institute in Kyiv, the first pediatric lung transplant in the history of Ukrainian transplantology. The operation, led by institute director Borys Todurov, lasted around eight hours. The donor was an 11-year-old girl whose parents consented to posthumous donation after brain death was confirmed.
Key points
- 13-year-old Dana Dudnik became the first child in Ukraine to receive a lung transplant.
- The operation was performed at the Heart Institute (Інститут серця) in Kyiv.
- Cardiac surgeon Borys Todurov, the institute's general director, led the surgery.
- The procedure lasted approximately eight hours.
- The donor was an 11-year-old girl who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury; her parents consented to posthumous donation.
- Dana was born with a congenital heart defect that led to pulmonary artery sclerosis (Eisenmenger syndrome); a heart operation was performed alongside the transplant.
- Dana and her mother had been on the lung transplant waiting list since April; the family was notified about a donor in August.
- A week after the operation Dana was walking in a park; a month later she was running and fully rehabilitated, according to Todurov.
- Dana will require lifelong immunosuppressive medication; doctors say she will return to a full life without significant restrictions.
- The 11-year-old donor's organs saved a total of five lives.
- More than 200 people are on the Heart Institute's waiting list for a heart, lungs, or heart-lung complex.
- Ukraine has about 4 organ donors per million people per year, compared with 24–26 per million in Europe and the US.
Why it matters
The procedure marks the first pediatric lung transplant in the history of Ukrainian transplantology. The patient made a full recovery within a month after an approximately eight-hour operation, and the 11-year-old donor's organs saved a total of five lives. The Heart Institute is the third-busiest heart transplant center in Europe, yet Ukraine has roughly six times fewer organ donors per million people than Europe and the US, a gap the surgery highlights.
What happened
A 13-year-old girl from Cherkasy named Dana Dudnik became the first child in Ukraine to receive a lung transplant, at the Heart Institute (Інститут серця) in Kyiv. She had been born with a congenital heart defect that led to pulmonary artery sclerosis, known as Eisenmenger syndrome, and had been on the transplant waiting list since April. In August the family was notified that a donor had been found and had only a few hours to travel from Cherkasy to Kyiv.
The donor was an 11-year-old girl who had suffered a severe traumatic brain injury incompatible with life; her parents gave consent for posthumous donation after brain death was confirmed. The operation, which lasted approximately eight hours and involved a team of 15, was performed by cardiac surgeon Borys Todurov, general director of the Heart Institute, alongside a heart operation. A week after surgery Dana was walking in a park, and a month later she was running and fully rehabilitated, according to Todurov. She will require lifelong immunosuppressive medication, and doctors say she will return to a full life without significant restrictions. The donor's organs saved a total of five lives in all.
The surgery took place roughly two months before Todurov's press conference. More than 200 people, including many children and teenagers, are currently on the Heart Institute's waiting list for a heart, lungs, or heart-lung complex.
Background
Pediatric transplants are technically harder than adult ones because of tissue, anesthesia, and rehabilitation challenges, as well as the smaller size of vessels, bronchi, and heart chambers; surgeons use special magnifying glasses that enlarge the operative field by three to four times, and donor organs are not always an anthropometric match and sometimes have to be resized.
The war prevents transplant teams from using helicopters and forces them to transport donor organs by car, a complication made worse by air raid alerts, especially when the donor base is in another region, at night, or when navigation is unavailable. A heart outside the body remains viable for about eight hours, within which retrieval, transport, and transplant must be completed.
Ukraine averages about 4 organ donors per million people per year, compared with 24–26 per million in Europe and the US, roughly six times fewer. The Heart Institute carried out 36 heart transplants last year and is the third-busiest heart transplant center in Europe. Over 200 people, many of them children and teenagers, are on its waiting list for a heart, lungs, or heart-lung complex. Todurov has said donor levels in Ukraine could be brought up to European standards once the war ends.
In August, surgeons at the Center of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery performed Ukraine's first heart transplant in an 11-year-old boy with a functionally single ventricle after a Fontan operation.