UK and Palestine joins forces for transplant initiative
With the support of the ISN Sister Centers program, the transplant center at El Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Palestine has partnered with the UK’s Royal Liverpool University hospital to build valuable training for doctors in the region so their patients can get the best treatment on offer. Karim Hammad, medical student at University of Liverpool shares his video testimony.
El Shifa is the largest hospital in Gaza and treats over half of the region’s 500 kidney failure patients. Many are in desperate need of transplants. Because doctors cannot leave the region, doctors don’t get the training they need to carry out transplant operations. However, circumstances have changed since a team from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital travelled to the Gaza strip to complete the first ever kidney transplant in the region.
They faced a specific set of challenges including a lack of equipment, simple medication as well as a content threat of war. So far, 51 kidney transplants have been carried out, with a 94 percent one-year graft survival rate. The team also set up the first tissue-typing lab in Gaza and provided crucial transplantation equipment such as a plasma exchange machine and specialist theatre equipment. Giving hope to more patients and offering them a chance for a normal life.
Watch the full video below.
