Donor aids two chronically ill patients
FOUR chronically ill people, including two in the TRNC, have been given a new lease of life after receiving the donated organs of a woman who died last Friday at Near East University Hospital.
Relatives of Nurten Aykıç, 52, gave permission for her kidneys, heart and liver to be donated when she died three days after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
“After she was declared brain-dead, her family were informed about the situation and they gave permission for her organs to be donated to patients awaiting life-saving operations,” Lefkoşa State Hospital deputy head doctor Adil Özyılkan said.
Ms Aykıç’s kidneys were donated to two patients in North Cyprus, while her heart and liver were flown by a military aircraft to Antalya, Turkey.
İbrahim Yazıcı, 48, and Turgay Kavuzkos, 24, received successful transplants on Monday at Lefkoşa State Hospital.
The surgery was performed by Fazıl Tuncay from Ankara’s Hacettepe University with the help of local doctors.
Transplants only became possible in the TRNC in November 2014. Doctors in the TRNC are currently only performing kidney transplants, and other organs are offered to patients in Turkey via its National Organ Transplant Coordination Centre.
The Lefkoşa hospital’s chief doctor, Bülent Dizdarlı, said liver transplants were possible, but there was no-one on the waiting list, while conducting heart transplants in the TRNC would require an upgrade of medical infrastructure.
Elated father-of-two Mr Yazıcı told Cyprus Today’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs that he felt “reborn” after receiving his new kidney.
“I would like to offer my condolences to the family who donated their mother’s organs,” he said.
“With this donation they give me a new lease of life. I hope other patients on the waiting list also get that chance.”
His feelings were echoed by Mr Kavuzkos, who thanked Ms Aykıç’s relatives. He said patients’ “life standards” depended on organ donations.
Health Minister Filiz Besim said organ donations “save lives” and urged people to add their names to a donor database.
She said “many successful kidney transplants” had been conducted in the TRNC since legislation was passed in 2014.
According to the latest figures, a total of 25 patients in the country have received new kidneys since 2014, while 155 are still waiting. Some 122 people have registered as potential donors with the Health Ministry.