Liver Destroyed in Work Accident, Transplant Saves It

Eight steps in the operating room and a series of interventions defined by doctors as "bordering on the impossible". This is how a 55-year-old farmer was saved in Piedmont after a very serious accident at work left his liver practically exploding. The transplant was performed in Turin at the specialized center of the Molinette hospital when the situation had become desperate: a few hours after being placed on the national super-urgent list, a compatible organ donor had already been found. "An angel - says Claudia, the patient's wife - who made it possible to achieve a miracle right on Easter Sunday".

The ordeal of Martino, manager of a family-run company in Fossano (Cuneo) renowned for its milk production, began on April 2, the day he was working in the silo when his upper right abdomen was crushed by the arm of a farm shovel. The laceration of the liver caused a massive hemorrhage. In Cuneo, doctors managed to "package" the organ; two more operations followed. But 11 days later, with the patient seemingly on the verge of being able to leave intensive care, the bleeding began again. The fourth operation, necessary to stop the new hemorrhage, was successful, but most of Martino's liver was now gone and he was about to fall into acute liver failure. Hence the transfer to the Molinette hospital in Turin, where those in charge immediately understood that the only viable option was a transplant.

Shortly after the case was placed on the emergency list, the National Center in Rome (directed by Giuseppe Feltrin) notified Federico Genzano's Piedmont counterpart of the availability from another region. And so, within 18 hours, the Turin team led by Renato Romagnoli and Silvia Martini began to proceed. What remained of the liver was removed and, after about 120 minutes, blood began to circulate in the new organ again. Three more operations were performed to complete the surgical therapy and the patient was placed in the semi-intensive area, where he is on the path to recovery. "We knew very little about organ donation," says Mrs. Claudia. "It is not talked about as much as it should be. But from a life that is lost, other lives can blossom again. We are believers and behold, the parable of the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and produces fruit, is reborn, comes to mind."

Claudia has words of praise for the doctors ("in Cuneo, immediately, Dr. Donati saved my husband, in Turin Dr. Romagnoli allowed us to find the angel") and says that, ultimately, this is also "a love story". For the commitment of the doctors, for the very rapid appearance of a donor, for the support that the family found among relatives, friends and simple acquaintances: "They didn't leave us alone even for a day".