A chronically ill, 61-year-old woman was given a new lung at the University of Tartu’s hospital, which has for years prepared for what is now the first lung transplant operation in Estonia.
The transplant appears to have been successful and the patient is in intensive care, said doctor Tanel Laisaar, who performed the operation with his team. The days immediately after the operation are the most critical, he said.
The hospital began preparing for such an operation three years ago in cooperation with university doctors in Vienna, where the first lung transplant for an Estonian patient took place last April.
Four more Estonians are on the waiting list for a new lung. Another 10 potential patients are being diagnosed. Laisaar said that a country the size of Estonia needs six to eight lung transplants a year.
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