The Community of Madrid has managed to recover the kidney function of a minor who needed a double heart-renal transplant at the La Paz University Public Hospital. The great evolution of the kidney treatment applied has allowed the little boy to undergo an isolated heart transplant, thus avoiding a second kidney surgery.
The little boy, eight years old, had a congenital heart defect for which he had undergone surgery in Portugal when he was barely a year old. The child arrived in Madrid at the beginning of July from the São João Hospital in the Portuguese city of Porto, in a very serious clinical situation, under the coordination of the National Transplant Organization (ONT).
After contracting an infection caused by the SARS-COV2 virus, he developed severe heart and kidney failure that required a combined heart and kidney transplant.
His situation made it necessary to place a long-term mechanical ventricular assistance system and subsequent inclusion on the heart transplant list, under the existing agreement between both countries.
The patient has been dependent on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation System (ECMO) and dialysis since March 14.
Already in Madrid, on July 19, ECMO was replaced by a heart known as a pulsatile biventricular assist device (Berlin Heart Excor).
From that moment on, the child achieved hemodynamic stability that allowed significant improvement from a respiratory, motor and nutritional point of view.
However, kidney function did not evolve favorably until a month and a half after the heart transplant, an advance that made it possible to stop dialysis and face an isolated heart transplant in a better clinical situation and, in addition, avoid kidney transplantation.
The minor will be transferred this Saturday to his home hospital after being discharged in La Paz to continue there with the necessary care for his full recovery.
