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Toni received a heart and a liver on October 31 at the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid.
El simultaneous heart and liver transplant that Toni received last October 31 at the Gregorio Marañón hospital (Madrid) is a success story. The two organs from the same donor changed his future, they offered him a simultaneous transplant or 4 months of life, he gambled everything on one card and won.
In an interview with EFE following the National Transplant Day which is celebrated the March 30., Tony, 56 years in the Making, cannot be more grateful to his donor, whom he only knows was young and that his heart, in his twenties, is today a powerful engine that has renewed him and, together with the liver, has allowed him to leave behind recurrent hepatic encephalopathies, which significantly reduced their quality of life.
Toni travels from Ciudad Real, where he resides, to Madrid every 15 days to undergo reviews that this year will be biweekly but next year they will be more spaced, three or six months, and will become annual in a short time. In Madrid he stays in an apartment financed by the National Federation of Liver Patients and Transplants (FNETH), where two other patients awaiting transplants are currently spending the night.
Floors for transplants
Psychologist Rosa Gómez, who provides support to those housed in the FNETH floor, admits to Efe that people do not know about the existence of these accommodations, which is why it is important to disseminate them. "There are people," he says, "who have been sleeping in the hospital room or in the car because they are unaware that the federations have, in many cases, accommodation services." transitory for transplant recipients, patients under review or who are receiving treatment".
Toni emphasizes the great support that comes with being accommodated in Federation flats and remembers that in Ciudad Real "there is not even a surgeon" and in the hospitals of Castilla la Mancha Transplants are not performed, so it is necessary to go to Madrid or Valencia, and the high cost of living in these cities makes it very difficult to stay overnight for days, weeks or months.
12 hours and 30 health professionals
The operation on October 31, 2021 lasted 12 hours and involved 30 healthcare professionals. It was a milestone in the history of the Spanish transplant but the journey for Toni began much earlier, in June when they told him that his liver transplant was not viable because his heart would not support and there was only one possibility: transplant the two organs. "I told them yes, not doing it meant a life expectancy of 4 months so there was no other option," he explains. Toni says that they ask her if she was afraid and she assures that she was not, that she is versatile in assimilating things, that she has a well-equipped head and since he knew that it was the only possibility of survival, he held on to that.
An ambulance took him from Ciudad Real to Madrid, he entered the operating room on October 31 and his first memory is from November 2: "The doctors welcomed me because I had been sleeping for two days and that's where it all began, but "The rehabilitation went very well and very quickly."
He was in the hospital until December 8, the evolution in a month and a half was spectacular, there were no infections and he accepted the treatment well: "Day by day I noticed a significant improvement, so they discharged me and I stayed in the Federation apartment," he explains. On the floor he contacted other transplant recipients to whom he conveyed a message of encouragement. "It has been a fabulous trip although in the post-operative period you have to be careful, you can cope," she says.
Toni remembers that Your liver problems have a genetic origin, His father died of cirrhosis because "transplants were not done then" and he also reviews all the health problems he has had for the last 8 years. From the encephalopathies, the falls without knowing why, the general malaise, the lack of strength, the pain in the chest that was confused with muscle pain and that gave rise to a hasty sick leave that took him away from his job as a manager in an appliance chain.
His liver was not working and it dragged his heart "He became a mess, his veins began to bend" and the balloons that were inserted into his aorta could not do their job.
This whole process is behind us and today Toni breathes optimism and with the support of his children, 31 and 27 years old, makes future predictions.
And reveals that 15 years ago he dreamed that a heart and a liver were placed in him and that dream came to mind when he was entering the operating room, so he is convinced, although it may sound bizarre, that what is happening "he has already experienced."
Looking National Transplant Day, can only encourage people to donate because donation is life. "When we are young, we believe we are gods and we think that a transplant is something foreign, but in the end it can be your turn."
On the FNETH floor, a hand-painted mural occupies the back wall of the room. A green and idyllic place where those who have passed through this home have written messages like this: "He who saves one life is a hero, but he who saves many is a donor."
Source: Heraldo de Aragón
