NewsWhore
10-16-2007, 05:20 PM
Santiago's brand new Metropolitan Hospital (HOMS) has announced that it has performed seven successful kidney transplants. The 50,000 square meter hospital is the leading medical center for the north and central parts of the country. It promotes itself as the most advanced medical facility in the country.
The kidneys were donated as part of the "Donate to be Remembered" Foundation's work. Last Friday, seven donors were operated on, and seven beneficiary children received the organs. Nephrologist Eliana Dina and specialist Alvaro Velasquez, head of the transplant unit at the San Vicente de Paul Hospital in Medellin, Colombia led the operations. "I believe what is most important for the DR is not the fact that seven transplants were carried out, but rather that the option is now there, the infrastructure, the technology and trained staff," says Velasquez, who has carried out over 4,200 organ transplants during his medical career. He said that now that the initiative has started, the DR could leap over the 20 to 30 years of medical experience in Colombia and be at the same level of procedures.
"You are moving from family medicine practice where doctors could only dispense aspirins and cough medicine, to a hi-tech medicine, with high complexity, because the transplants are a highly complex surgery," he told the press during the announcement.
Velasquez said that the set-up at HOMS is superior to that at the hospital where he works. "What is now needed is a network of donors," said Velasquez.
Santiago free zone businessman, Jose Clase, who presides over the new donors foundation and is on the board of HOMS, highlighted the need to create awareness about the importance of donating organs and that this initiative should not just be taken by living donors but also so that many who know they will die may decide to donate.
Velasquez was named a distinguished visitor of Santiago by the municipal authorities.
While the HOMS is a private facility, the Fernandez administration contributed millions of taxpayer money to rescue builders from financial problems, and thus also services the general public that could normally not afford its services.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
The kidneys were donated as part of the "Donate to be Remembered" Foundation's work. Last Friday, seven donors were operated on, and seven beneficiary children received the organs. Nephrologist Eliana Dina and specialist Alvaro Velasquez, head of the transplant unit at the San Vicente de Paul Hospital in Medellin, Colombia led the operations. "I believe what is most important for the DR is not the fact that seven transplants were carried out, but rather that the option is now there, the infrastructure, the technology and trained staff," says Velasquez, who has carried out over 4,200 organ transplants during his medical career. He said that now that the initiative has started, the DR could leap over the 20 to 30 years of medical experience in Colombia and be at the same level of procedures.
"You are moving from family medicine practice where doctors could only dispense aspirins and cough medicine, to a hi-tech medicine, with high complexity, because the transplants are a highly complex surgery," he told the press during the announcement.
Velasquez said that the set-up at HOMS is superior to that at the hospital where he works. "What is now needed is a network of donors," said Velasquez.
Santiago free zone businessman, Jose Clase, who presides over the new donors foundation and is on the board of HOMS, highlighted the need to create awareness about the importance of donating organs and that this initiative should not just be taken by living donors but also so that many who know they will die may decide to donate.
Velasquez was named a distinguished visitor of Santiago by the municipal authorities.
While the HOMS is a private facility, the Fernandez administration contributed millions of taxpayer money to rescue builders from financial problems, and thus also services the general public that could normally not afford its services.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)