Padua: President Luca Zaia congratulates the surgical teams who performed the first heart harvest from a “non-cardiac donor”.

“Congratulations to the surgical teams who completed the First heart donation in Tuscany from a 'heart-dead' donor and the subsequent transplant. I am proud that the collection involved the staff of an excellent Veneto healthcare facility.” declares the President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia.

“It happened, in fact, – continues Zaia – thanks to the collaboration of the Heart Transplant Center of the Hospital Trust of Padua, directed by Professor Gino Gerosa, who, after having signed the first intervention of this kind in Italy last year, opening an innovative way for transplants, has made its experience available also outside the region. Medicine has always been sharing knowledge and experiences for the benefit of patients and the constant progress of techniques and therapies.”

“I congratulate all the professionals, Venetians and Tuscans, who were protagonists of this intervention. I send a thought in memory of the donor and his family while I reserve a wish for the patient who received the organ and has already been discharged" concludes the President Luca Zaia, for the collaboration that led to the first heart donation from a “non-heart-dead donor” in Tuscany.