Woman receives liver and heart transplant during one operation in Dutch first

In Groningen, a 35-year-old woman was given a new heart and liver from the same donor during a single operation, the University Medical Center (UMCG) said this week. According to the hospital, it was the first time in the Netherlands these two organs were transplanted during the same procedure.

The woman is doing well, said the UMCG, and has started her recovery. The patient had a severe heart defect from birth, and was missing the right side of her heart. Her heart has already been operated on several times, but the deficiency has also affected her liver.

That can lead to an accumulation of moisture and shortness of breath in cases like hers and, in nearly all cases, to the person's death when they are between the age of 30 and 40. In the Netherlands, there are around a few hundred people with this condition, according to the UMCG.

A double transplant is better than when a patient gets a new heart first and then a new liver, explained a spokesperson from the UMCG. If somebody were to receive a new heart, they must take medication for the rest of their life to ensure that their body does not reject the transplanted organ.

Then, if the patient requires a liver sometime later, it is hard to find one that will fit precisely with the medication the patient is already taking from the first transplant. Placing a new liver as a preventative measure before the heart transplant is necessary is also not possible as there are not enough donors available. Only people who specifically need the new organ are considered for a transplant.

The operation took nearly 24 hours, with seventeen medical specialists and over thirty assistants working on the patient. Preparations started years ago for the procedure. The operation was very complicated, according to one of the surgeons. The patient's heart was defective, but so was the way in which the organ was positioned in the body. This made it difficult to attach the transplanted heart properly. The patient was said to have been given "a second life" due to the organ.

Combination transplantations are not infrequent in the transplantation center in Groningen, such as heart and lung transplants. The spokesperson for the hospital would not say when the latest surgery was carried out. This is to protect the privacy of the patient, donor, and donor's relatives, as it makes it more difficult for them to track each other down.