The baby, who had been waiting for death even before his first birthday 30 years ago, was able to grow into a healthy young man through the first biological liver transplant in Korea at the time.
The young girl, who had a weak heart and was difficult to even guarantee her life, was able to become a mother and embrace another life in the world after receiving two heart transplants.
Asan Medical Center in Seoul announced on the 18th that it has given new lives to 25,000 patients with organ failure whose organs do not function properly since the early days of organ transplantation in Korea.
Since 1990, more than 25,000 organ transplants have been performed, including liver, heart, kidney, lung, pancreas, cornea, and bone marrow, according to the Organ Transplant Center at Asan Medical Center in Seoul. The survival rate after transplantation was 98% for a year, 95% for the heart, 98.5% for the kidney, and 80% for the lungs.
In the case of liver transplantation, the number of operations alone exceeded 8,500. The survival rate is 98%, 90% for 3 years, and 89% for 10 years.
85% of liver transplants are living liver transplants in which a part of the liver of a living person is removed and transplanted. Unconforming human liver transplants for ABO blood type, which is a high-risk immunological group, are performed the most in the world by Asan Medical Center in Seoul.
Heart transplants were first performed in Korea in 1992 in a 50-year-old female patient suffering from end-stage heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy, and there have been more than 900 records so far. The survival rate is 95% for one year, 86% for five years, and 76% for 10 years.
Asan Medical Center in Seoul explained that kidney transplants are being carried out safely even if high-risk groups with a high probability of rejection, so-called blood types of donors and recipients are inappropriate, or if the cross-reaction test conducted to determine tissue suitability between donors and recipients is positive.
Hwang Shin, head of the organ transplant center at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, said, "The driving force that has been able to provide noble life to as many as 25,000 patients so far has been the mission to save even severely ill patients," adding, "After continuous research and challenge with the will to live, organ transplants have already reached a world-class level.“
[WIKI KOREA=Cho Eun, Reporter]
choeun@wikileaks-kr.org
