A Turin liver transplant has saved the life of a 28-year-old Greek woman with a rare genetic illness, who has now left hospital, her Italian doctors said on Sunday.
Eirini, a Greek student completing a master’s degree in the Netherlands, has Wilson’s disease. The condition causes copper to build up in the liver.
She developed acute liver failure while in Athens, and it spread to other vital organs. As a result, doctors rushed her to the city’s Hippokration General Hospital.
Eirini told Greek television that arriving within 24 hours was the main reason she survived. “I was lucky because they found a donor and we did the transplant straight away,” she said.
Doctors activated the Greek-Italian protocol on transplant cooperation. In Italy, the National Transplant Centre in Rome set the process in motion, according to the Turin hospital.
The Turin liver transplant
Professor Renato Romagnoli, head of the Liver Transplant Centre at the Molinette hospital, agreed to take her case. A special aircraft then flew her to Italy.
She arrived intubated, with only hours to live, her doctors said. Special treatment quickly cut the amount of copper in her liver.
Within 12 hours, doctors found a donor organ and took her into theatre. Romagnoli and his colleagues spent 10 hours on the Turin liver transplant.
Her recovery was far from simple because of several complications. Specialists in kidney disease, immunology, liver disease, anaesthesia and radiology worked together to treat them.
“This is the power of organ donation, a great gift of life, a new liver,” said Livio Tranchida, the hospital’s director general.
Tranchida said the donation, together with the skill of the hospital’s doctors, saved a young Greek woman’s life when there seemed little room for hope.
Recovery and going home
Eirini has now left hospital following her Turin liver transplant, and her doctors described her progress as extremely satisfactory.
She told Greek television that she had needed two weeks of physiotherapy because she had not walked for three months. Ever since she started walking again, she has felt well, she said.
“The patient is well and will soon be able to return to Greece,” Romagnoli said.
He described the Turin liver transplant as “a story of immediacy, effective organisation, international cooperation and altruism.”
Wilson’s disease is an inherited disorder that stops the body removing extra copper, according to the US National Library of Medicine.
Last year, the same Turin team carried out a second transplant on 18-year-old Mario from Agrinio.
Source: Proto Thema
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