One of the hospitals in West Pomerania Province found a liver donor for a patient who was awaiting surgery at the Banacha Hospital. The transport had to be organized quickly. Therefore, in the middle of the night Krzysztof Zając, transplantation coordinator of the Central Clinical Hospital UCC MUW, called insp. pil. Robert Sitek, head of the Police Aviation Board of the General Police Staff of the KGP, asking for help in this matter. The next morning, a police Black Hawk with a crew and transplant team on board left for a hospital in West Pomerania. A liver was harvested on the spot. The way back to Warsaw took less than 2 hours. The flight was performed under the code name GARDA, i.e. with priority in the air.
- Thanks to the police airmen, the liver for transplantation arrived on time. Our quick calculations indicated that it would take more than 7 hours to transport the organ by car. And although in the case of a liver the time of cold ischemia is much longer than in the case of a heart, we could not risk it anyway. The time gained thanks to the air transport gave the transplantation team an additional five hours, which is not insignificant for such a long and very demanding operation - says Krzysztof Zając and he adds: - Our center is one of several such clinics in the country where liver transplants are performed. Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Katowice, Szczecin, Warsaw and Wroclaw - these are the cities where the clinics have the Minister of Health's permission to store and transplant livers from deceased donors. This year, in the Chair and Department of General, Transplantation and Liver Surgery at the Medical University of Warsaw, it was the 40th liver transplant, this time necessary due to vital indications. The surgery went without any complications. A few days after the surgery, the patient is in good general condition.
We keep our fingers crossed that the treatment process goes smoothly and the patient recovers quickly.
/based on materials provided by the Public Relations Office of the National Police Headquarters/