Notably, the fifth transplant set a milestone with a cold ischemia time of approximately 18 hours during transport across more than 1,800km.

The milestone was achieved in mid-October, when a medical team from the hospital travelled overnight by car for nine hours from Hue to Gia Lai province to retrieve a kidney from a 22-year-old brain-dead donor at Hung Vuong Gia Lai Hospital.

Following retrieval, the kidney was immediately placed in a LifePort kidney transporter for preservation before being transported by air via Pleiku (Gia Lai) and Tan Son Nhat (Ho Chi Minh City) airports to Hue city. The entire journey took approximately 35 hours and 30 minutes, covering more than 1,800km. 

Despite the long journey, the transplanted kidney regained a healthy appearance and began producing urine immediately after blood flow was restored during surgery. The recipient's kidney function has since recovered well and remains stable.

The fourth kidney transplant using LifePort was performed on a 12-year-old boy who received a kidney from a 26-year-old brain-dead donor in Hanoi. The transplanted kidney functioned immediately, producing around 3,000ml of urine in the first 24 hours and subsequently maintaining output of 2,000–2,500ml per day. The child continues to receive close postoperative monitoring and treatment.

Both recipients are recovering well and remain in stable condition.

Hospital leaders said the successful procedures highlighted the importance of LifePort in preserving donated organs, particularly when they must be transported over long distances. The achievements also reflected close coordination among organ donation and transplant networks, retrieval teams, transport providers and surgical specialists./.