ilustrativa

Havana, June 11 (RHC)-- With the performance, this week of two kidney transplants at the Arnaldo Milián Castro Surgical Clinical Provincial Hospital in Villa Clara, in central Cuba, that service was restarted after almost two years paralyzed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The procedure has benefited more than 6,000 Cubans free of charge.

The transplants are performed by a multidisciplinary team of nephrologists and surgeons from Villa Clara and Holguin province and other specialists.

Two young people received transplants this week, in one case, the organ of a mother. In the other, that of a brother, explained Dr. Milagros Hernández Fernández, a specialist in nephrology and coordinator of the transplant program in the central region of Cuba.

According to the doctor, the recipients and their donors are hospitalized, in perfect health and grateful for the procedure that returns them to normality since they avoid going to the hemodialysis rooms.

She stated that during the pandemic, the service was stopped due to the need to use the units for the most important task, caring for patients carrying the coronavirus.

In addition, the cost imposed by the tightening of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, which prevented the arrival of immunosuppressants and of the solution used in the preservation of the kidneys once they had been removed, also played a role.