It was the first time the procedure has been carried out in Mexico’s public health system
Mega Doctor News
Four patients who were suffering from chronic renal failure can now look forward to healthier lives after they received kidneys from donors they had never met or seen before.
Known as cross-kidney transplantation, the procedure is used when a suitable, matching donor cannot be found from within a patient’s family. It was the first time it had been carried out in Mexico’s national public health system. Thirty-two transplant surgeons, 16 anesthetists and 32 surgical nurses worked across eight operating rooms at the Juárez de México Hospital in Mexico City to perform the procedure.
One of the recipients of a new kidney was Marisol Cárdenas Medina. Although her mother, Olga Medina, was a willing donor her kidney was not compatible. She initially rejected the idea of donating her kidney to a stranger, but when Olga Medina realized that by doing so she would help save her daughter’s life, she decided to go ahead.
“As neither of my kidneys are compatible with Marisol, I donated to Mr. Victor Manuel González Ramírez and my daughter received an organ from Martha Guadalupe Rincón Alemán,” she explained.
The head of the hospital’s transplant unit Andrés Bazán Borges said that for the procedure to be successful each donor-recipient pair needed to be assessed for compatibility with another pair in a similar situation. The four pairs that were operated, matched in a selection process that considered a total of 40 donor-recipient pairs and, according to the son of one of the recipients, was both arduous and complicated.
“The people proposed didn’t pass the compatibility tests and my dad had to receive Víctor González Roldán’s kidney, someone that he didn’t know,” Christhian Lorenzo Aguirre said.
González Ramírez, a financial consultant who received a kidney from Marisol Cárdenas’ mother Olga, said the unprecedented procedure offered him new hope for an improved life. “It was Olga Medina who gave me her kidney. This circle saved the lives of four people,” González Ramírez said. “Finally, I had a real possibility of regaining a better quality of life.”
All of the eight patients involved in the cross-kidney transplantation procedures are recovering well and the kidney recipients are undergoing treatment to avoid rejection of their new organs.
