Ukrainian doctors transplant organs of deceased girl amid Russian strikes, saving 3 children
As Russian missiles rained down on Kyiv on July 11, doctors at Ukraine's largest children's hospital performed a "historic" lifesaving organ transplant from a deceased 4-year-old girl, saving the lives of three critically ill children, according to an official statement.
The National Specialized Children's Hospital Okhmatdyt announced that the girl, brought in from the Zhytomyr Oblast, was declared brain-dead overnight on July 10. With her parents' consent, her heart, liver, and kidneys were donated, the first time in the hospital's history that such a posthumous transplant was carried out.
"This is a story about humanity, the incredible power of a parent's decision, and the chance for life even in the most difficult times," the hospital said in a statement.
The process involved a coordinated effort between Okhmatdyt, the Ukrainian Transplant Coordination Center, and other specialists, all conducted under the threat of ongoing air raids and missile strikes.
Among the recipients was a 16-year-old girl with Wilson's disease, in critical condition and given the highest emergency status. She received a liver transplant. A 14-year-old boy who had been on dialysis for over seven months at Okhmatdyt received the kidneys.
The third recipient, a 12-year-old girl, was given the heart at the Health Ministry's Heart Institute, also under urgent conditions. The operations lasted over 13 hours.
Dr. Oleh Hodyk, a transplant surgeon at Okhmatdyt, said that this was the hospital's first full cycle of brain death diagnosis, organ retrieval, and transplantation.
Okhmatdyt is Ukraine's largest children's medical center, which was struck directly by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile during one of Russia's deadliest assaults on Kyiv on July 8, 2024, killing 33 people and injuring 121 others.
The attack, which damaged residential buildings and medical facilities, caused international outrage, especially as video evidence and missile fragments confirmed that the hospital was intentionally targeted.
