Decision of life and death on the morning of the 27th of Tet
The patient is a woman, 65 years old, from Hai Phong, diagnosed with primary biliary tract infection in the stage of cirrhosis 3 years ago. Recently, cirrhosis has progressed rapidly, and liver function has seriously declined. The patient was admitted to the hospital with the desire to have a liver transplant.
On February 13, 2026, the condition deteriorated, the patient fell into a liver coma, with a very high risk of death. At 8 am on February 14, the hospital organized an emergency professional consultation with the participation of leading experts, chaired by Lieutenant General, Professor, Dr. Le Huu Song - Director of Central Military Hospital 108. The consultation conclusion determined: Emergency liver transplantation is the only treatment measure, which cannot be delayed.
Many doctors and nurses are on overtime leave, even have returned to their hometowns or are on their way to prepare to celebrate Tet with their families, quickly returning to the hospital. The entire system enters the highest readiness state.
Dr. Ho Van Linh - Department of Liver - Gallbladder - Pancreas Surgery, Central Military Hospital 108 shared: "When a patient is diagnosed with emergency liver transplant indications, we only have one option left, which is to mobilize maximum resources to save the patient's life in the shortest time. This is truly a race against time. For us, the patient's life is always the highest priority.
6 hours of stress in the operating room
The surgery lasted 6 consecutive hours, requiring high technical level, absolute accuracy and smooth coordination between surgical, anesthesiology, and post-transplant resuscitation teams.
Notably, the team performed liver transplantation from living donors using laparoscopic surgery - one of the most complex techniques in modern surgery. Laparoscopic liver transplantation requires surgeons with in-depth experience, meticulous and absolutely accurate operations, and a synchronous equipment system.
This method brings many benefits to healthy donors such as: less invasive, reduced postoperative pain, shortened recovery time, high aesthetics, while still ensuring the quality of the graft is equivalent to traditional open surgery. Currently, in the world, only a few leading liver and gallbladder and liver transplant centers in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Korea can routinely implement this technique.
After surgery, the patient was monitored and actively cared for. Up to now, his health condition is stable, transplanted liver function is recovering well, and vital signs are strictly controlled.
Gift of life" in the transitional season
In the moment of transition to the new year, the successful liver transplant became a "gift of life", spreading a humane message about the noble act of organ donation and belief in Vietnamese medicine that is increasingly developing, modern, and humane.
Previously, in the last days of 2025 and early 2026, the hospital also continuously successfully performed liver transplants from brain-dead donors (December 31, 2025) and deployed multi-organ transplants from brain-dead donors who are medical staff (January 12, 2026), reviving 5 new lives.
