Imogen Calderwood
ANDALUCIA’S leading hospital for organ donation has completed a record number of kidney transplants in one day.
The Malaga Provincial Hospital – previously the Carlos Haya Hospital – carried out five kidney transplants in 15 hours on February 18, beginning the marathon stint at 7am and ending at 10pm.
The patients were four men and one woman, all aged between 37 and 73, according to provincial transplant coordinator Miguel Angel de Frutos.
Four of the donations were from cadaver donors and the fifth was a living donation, an increasingly popular method for those in urgent need of an organ.
“The important thing is that all these five kidney transplant patients are doing well and there have been no problems,” said Dr. de Frutos.
The hospital, which was named the leading public hospital in Andalucia for organ donation last year, has carried out 21 kidney transplants so far this year.
In the past three years the Andalucian donation rate has topped the Spanish national average, which is already the highest in the world.
Were they Brits who needed the transplants as alcohol is so cheap in Spain?