In 2018, in America, Maria Aslamazi underwent a multi-visceral transplant (stomach, duodenum, liver, pancreas and small intestine), thanks to the donation of the organs of a woman who died in a traffic accident, while in the summer of 2022 she underwent a transplant kidney, with a transplant given to her by her mother.
“Organ donation is a priceless gift, the ultimate act of solidarity.” These are the words by Maria Aslamazi, the doctor who has had a total of six organ transplants in the last four years. She herself, speaking to APE-MPE on the occasion of today’s Panhellenic Organ, Tissue and Transplant Donation Day, gives her own message, from America, where she is hospitalized after the last transplant she underwent, while at the same time she dreams of returning in January 2023 in Thessaloniki and at ACHEPA to do, within the new year, everything he had planned: take exams and get the title of anesthesiology specialty.
THE Maria Aslamazi was submitted in 2018, in America, in a multi-visceral transplant (stomach, duodenum, liver, pancreas and small intestine), thanks to the donation of the organs of a woman who died in a traffic accident, while in the summer of 2022 she underwent a kidney transplant, with a transplant given to her by her mother.
“After death, the organs will be of no use to the dead, neither in the soil in which they are buried, nor above. We need the instruments here. The impact of one organ donation is huge, millions of lives can be saved. If one donor can save up to eight people, imagine how big the numbers are, how much the waiting list could change. There are two or three things that we have to understand, that is, we are not harming our person by donating his organs, because he is already brain dead and this is something irreversible, it is something that does not change, but it can change the lives of eight people “, points out.
At the same time, he notes that, unfortunately, there is a lack of information about organ donation and adds: “The first thing I would say to the world is to be informed. I understand that – and I will say it – the State does not inform. We don’t have the information we should have. But each of us can do a bit of research on our own, it’s not that hard, we have access to so many sources now. So, information is the first thing, to understand how priceless this gift is, which is the ultimate act of solidarity, there is nothing greater.”
Her health adventure Maria Aslamazi started, when at the age of 10 she was diagnosed with sarcoma, which was removed and then underwent radiation therapy. But radiation therapy caused damage to the vessels in the abdomen, and then there was a narrowing of the superior mesenteric artery, which became thrombosed. Due to this condition damage was caused to the entire small intestine and part of the large intestine and at the age of 32 he had to be on parenteral nutrition. He then suffered liver failure and had to undergo a transplant.
“In total I waited five years, the first two years were not bad. My liver was still functioning and my quality of life was good, but when the liver started to malfunction, things got difficult. I underwent a stomach, duodenum, liver, pancreas and entire small intestine transplant in February 2018, a 16-hour operation, performed at the Transplant Center of Cleveland Clinic of Ohio and my doctor was Egyptian transplant surgeon Kareem Abu-Elmagd. All the organs that were transplanted into me came from the same woman, who was about 30 years old and died in a car accident. After the surgery I went back in several times for corrective procedures. During this time I was in an induced coma. My hospitalization in total lasted over three months, but I stayed in America for five years. The costs were covered thanks to donations from doctors and businessmen from Thessaloniki, but also from expatriates in America. But the drugs I take to maintain the transplanted organs suppress the immune system and are nephrotoxic. So, a year ago I developed kidney failure, which was not end stage, so I was not on dialysis. We made some moves to find a living donor. My mom, because she had a different blood group, we considered her not a suitable donor. But when things started to get worse, it was looked at and found to be compatible to a very good degree. Therefore she became a donor. The transplant was done in America, at the Cleveland Clinic, by transplant surgeon Alvin Wee. Usually, living donor transplants go very well, and so did mine. I was lucky, my mom gave me a kidney that works very well. The transplant was done three months ago and I have to stay in America for a total of six months after the operation so that the doctors at the center where the transplant took place can monitor me. Therefore, I will stay in America for another three months and I hope that in the new year I will return to my life and to AHEPA”, Maria Aslamazi recounts.
RES-EMP
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