CAMAGÜEY- In the midst of the economic difficulties that Cuba is going through, the transplant program has not stopped. To date, more than 500 cornea and 580 kidney transplants have been performed in the province, four of them with a living donor.
Dr. Surianis Marrero Mesa, regional organ donation and transplant coordinator, assured that in all cases the immunosuppressants, which they receive free of charge, have been sent to their territories. This center covers the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey.
"Our direct patients are kidney and cornea transplants, but there are liver, marrow or heart transplants ... they are cases that are treated in Havana, but given the impossibility of traveling due to COVID-19 they have received attention here as well as their treatments ”, she assured.
The last corneal transplant was performed in 2020 with excellent results and to date there are no cases on the waiting list. "Here we prepare and follow the patient, the cornea comes to us from Havana when compatibility with the organ is checked."
Dialysis is carried out in five centers: Nuevitas, Florida, Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila and Morón, with a systematic three times a week. Patients arrive at the institution in the Cubataxi service. Only 180 cases are treated in the nephrotic center attached to the Manuel Ascunce Domenech provincial hospital in this city.
A kidney transplant, which is done free of charge, depending on the use of expendable material and human and hospital resources, would be equivalent to 21 286 pesos. A hemodialysis session would be equivalent to 650 pesos, and the three that are performed in a week would reach 1,950. For this reason, although surgical treatment at the time of being carried out raises costs, in the long term it is a cheaper act than use of artificial kidneys.
The network of donations and transplants in the country works towards a civic culture for the donation of organs and tissues, seeking with them to sensitize families and potential donors for the gift of life they have in their hands for those people who are on the waiting list for an organ.
- Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez