Spanish baby gets pioneering intestine transplant
A one year-old Spanish girl has become the world’s first recipient of a successful intestine transplant from a donor who died of heart failure, Madrid’s La Paz hospital said on Tuesday.
“The child has now been discharged and is in perfect condition at home with her parents,” it said in a statement.
Spain is a global leader in organ transplants, with over 102 of them per million inhabitants performed in 2021, a rate only surpassed by the US, according to Spanish Health Ministry data.
The infant, Emma, had been diagnosed with intestinal failure when she was just 1-month-old because her intestine was too short, and her health rapidly deteriorated until receiving the multivisceral transplant.
Aside from the intestine, Emma also received a new liver, stomach, spleen and pancreas.
Asystole donations proceed from a dead person after doctors confirm the absence of a heartbeat and breathing functions.
The donor’s organs are then artificially preserved – despite the lack of oxygenated blood – through a system known as Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
What makes Emma’s case special is the difficulty in preserving an intestine from asystole donation due to the digestive organ’s characteristics.
Most transplanted organs stem from donors who have suffered brain death but retain a heartbeat, as this keeps the organs intact.
However, since the development of modern asystole donations, the technique’s popularity has grown to make up about one-third of all donations in Spain, La Paz said.
