First Middle East lung transplant from living donor a success
Lebanon, Medicine, 8/14/1997

In the first operation of its kind in the Middle East, surgeons at the St. George hospital in Ashrafieh performed a successful lung transplant from a living donor last week.

Zeina Aouad 30, who had been suffering since birth from life-threatening pulmonary fibrosis, was operated on by a French-Lebanese team who used the right lung of her father and partitioned it in two for the transplant.

Dr. Jean Paul Couetil, from the Broussais Hospital in Paris, who conducted the operation said the technique used was innovative because the team had managed the transplant without putting the health of the donor at risk.

Michel Aouad, husband of Zeina, said there had been two donors in the beginning, but one was dropped because he did not meet medical requirements.

Doctors finally decided to take the risk of performing the operation from one live donor9Aouad's father9because her condition had grown critical.

Aouad now is fine she can talk she can walk, she appeared frail, but in high spirits "It was a very successful operation," Aouad said.

Dr. Joudy Bahous, a Lebanese specialist who coordinated the procedure, said the only solution to Aouad's deteriorating health situation was to consider a lung transplant operation, despite the fact that it had never been done in Lebanon.

"Even though it was easy to think of the solution, it was very difficult to think of its execution in Lebanon in terms of the facilities and equipment available," he said.

Bahous said that one of the difficulties was finding the funds for the operation, which usually costs 250,000-500,000 US dollars overseas.

Doctors did not disclose how much the operation at St George hospital had cost, but said Lebanese surgeons had participated free of charge.

The manger of the hospital, Salam Al Rayes, said Lebanon was able to prove that it had the institutions, equipment, and professional staff capable of offering high-quality healthcare, and he announced the establishment of a multi-organ transplant unit at St. George hospital.

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