Extraorganary! Hero Royal Free medics who swapped three livers in 18 hours

Teamwork: Dinesh Sharma, Massimo Malago and Joerg-Matthias Pollok with their unit at The Royal Free in Hampstead. Some staff came in on their day off
Ross Lydall @RossLydall8 February 2018

Surgical teams at a hospital in London were hailed as “heroic” today after carrying out three life-saving liver transplants in 18 hours.

Off-duty staff rushed to The Royal Free in Hampstead to ensure that each operation went ahead as quickly as possible and to avoid the risk of the donated organs being offered elsewhere.

Two cases were “super-urgent” emergencies — meaning it was essential that the patients received the new livers before their condition deteriorated further. The third was for a patient who had been on the transplant waiting list for some time.

Dinesh Sharma, the consultant surgeon who carried out the first transplant, said: “To do three liver transplants in 18 hours — two of them in sick super-urgent-listed patients — is to my mind a heroic and unprecedented effort on behalf of the unit.

“It’s teamwork like this that has been responsible for us being the fastest-growing liver transplant programme in the country.”

Details emerged today of the intense effort, a record for the Royal Free, at the end of last year. Each transplant took between eight and 12 hours.

The first was started in late morning. The second, led by Professor Joerg-Matthias Pollok, began 11 hours later.

The third, led by Professor Massimo Malago, commenced two-and-a-half hours after that, in the early hours of the next day. Details of the recipients have been withheld to ensure confidentiality. All patients are said to be recovering well.

The Royal Free is the fourth busiest liver transplant centre in Britain, carrying out 104 procedures in 2016/17. This is expected to exceed 120 this year. The hospital, which also does kidney transplants, is the 10th busiest when all organs are counted.

Professor Malago, consultant anaesthetist Jackie Cooper and surgical registrars Bettina Buchholz and Tom Hanna all answered a request for them to come to work, despite not being on call.

Liver transplant co-ordinator Elaine Burrell, who worked with colleague Katie Quist, said: “We had to be on the ball constantly. Timings are absolutely crucial because you can’t accept the offer of a donation unless the staff, theatres and intensive care beds are available.

“Alongside co-ordinating the transplants you are usually still receiving further offers, setting up further potential transplants, managing pat-ient and relative queries. I took over from Katie, who set up the first transplant. This was my busiest ever on-call. My bleep was almost on fire.”

Professor Pollok, clinical lead for hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and liver transplantation at The Royal Free, said: “I would like to express my pride in what we achieved for our patients and their families, who put their trust in us. It feels good to be part of a team with such tremendous spirit.”

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