First kidney transplant held in northern Luzon hospital successful

By Liezle Basa Inigo

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan — The first-ever kidney transplant performed in a northern Luzon medical facility by Filipino doctors and nurses was a resounding success, authorities said over the weekend.

Dr. Roland Mejia, Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC), said the surgical team trained by the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Manila will hold a press conference at the R1MC this morning to discuss the details of the successful operation.

Mejia said the entire medical staff of the R1MC is proud that their medical facility is the first and only one north of Metro Manila capable of performing a kidney transplant from a living donor to a recipient.

The R1MC is the only medical facility with the advanced equipment and trained medical team licensed by the Department of Health (DOH) to perform such a complicated and life-saving surgical procedure.

Mejia said that its partnership with the NKTI has also set for January 2013 the training of more of its medical staff for kidney transplant procedures and care of patients.

Officials from the DOH are expected to face the media and give more details about the successful kidney operation although the identities of the patient and the donor will be kept secret.

Mejia said kidney transplants are a last resort of patients and that finding a compatible and willing donor is a very difficult process.

He also warned that selling of kidneys is illegal.