Hundreds of Successful Organ Transplants Performed at Kent Hospital in Turkey

Centennial, CO, October 04, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Finding out that you are the 80,000th patient on the waiting list for a liver or kidney transplant can be heartbreaking. Doing hours and hours of hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis is a life sentence. But patients in Eastern Europe and Middle East are facing other problems which prevent them from getting a chance to a new life: the lack of medical infrastructure.

The lack of specialized surgeons in organ transplant, medical equipment and technology needed for this procedure and the need for specialized clinics and hospitals is what pushes East Europeans and patients from Middle East to other countries.

Turkey is becoming a popular option when it comes to living donor organ transplant. The country is 3rd in the world with regard to liver, bone marrow, kidney and face transplantation operations. The cost of kidney transplant in Turkey is approximately $30,000 and a liver transplant is around $100,000, including doctors' fees, medication, 20 days hospitalization, complete tests, pre and post surgery check up.

These are the prices that patients can find at Kent Hospital, a JCI Accredited medical facility specialized in organ transplantations. Kent Hospital is the best hospital for Liver Transplant from live donors not only from Turkey, but in Europe, Africa and Middle East. The hospital's medical team brings together the best liver transplant surgeons in Europe bringing Kent Hospital the reputation for being a ‘center of excellence’.

The Turkish Health Ministry legal guideline states that organ transplants for international patients are possible only if the patient comes to Turkey for operation with his/her donor. The donor must be relative of the patient up to forth degree or his/her spouse. It is forbidden for foreign patients to have cadaveric organ transplantation.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Health:

The candidate donor must be at least 18 years old and be mentally balanced.
The Patient and the donor must have compatible blood groups
The donor should not have any medical condition or overweight problems
The donor must be a relative of the patient or his/her spouse up for forth degree.

First degree: mother, father, child
Second degree: sibling, grandfather, grandmother, grandchild
Third degree: paternal/ maternal uncle, aunt, cousin
Fourth degree: children of third degree relatives

To date, Kent Hospital has in its portfolio more than 1,700 successful liver transplants (almost 150 per year) and a mortality rate of less than 10%. The liver transplant surgeons at Kent Hospital have been trained at famous universities in Japan and the EGE University in Izmir, where Kent Hospital's medical team has performed the first liver transplant in 1999. Most of Kent Hospital's kidney transplant surgeons have been trained at centers in the US and the Hacettepe University in Turkey, which performed the first kidney transplant in the country.

"The fact that Kent Hospital has received its JCI Accreditation back in 2005, is a solid proof of our professionalism, training, experience and years of hard work to become the best organ transplant hospital in Europe and Middle East. Our center is a hope for patients waiting liver transplantation in our country and we will be happy to serve every patient coming from any other country especially in the field of live donor liver transplantation," says Dr. Hakan Tarakcioglu, International Business Development Director.

The Kent Hospital offers two options for international patients coming from Europe, Middle East or any other part of the world for organ transplant:

Living donor kidney transplant (the donor is a relative or the spouse of the patient)
Living donor paired exchange (also known as 'swap')

The Living donor paired exchange technique or “kidney swap” occurs when a living kidney donor (the relative or friend) is incompatible with the recipient, and so exchanges kidneys with another donor/recipient pair. This kidney paired donation transplant enables two incompatible recipients to receive healthy, more compatible kidneys.

Kent Hospital also has one of the most active and experienced living donor liver transplant programs. Through the Liver Transplantation with Living-related Donors a part of the liver is transplanted from the living relatives allowing the patient to receive a transplant without a prolonged waiting period. The donor’s healthy liver grows back to full size within three months.

Liver transplant team: Assoc. Prof. Murat Kilic, MD, Director, Liver Transplant Program, Prof. Mehmet Alper, MD, Aesthetic and Reconstructive microsurgery, Assoc. Prof. Murat Zeytunlu, MD, Liver, Pancreas and Biliary Tract Surgery and Liver Transplantation.

Kidney transplant team: Isık H. Ozgu, MD, Director, Kidney Transplant Program, Ugur Saracoglu, MD, Urology, Ebru Sevinc OK, MD, Nephrology.

"Kent Hospital has saved hundreds of international patients in desperate need for organ transplant. The excellent team, performing this type of procedures with 99% success rate, has brought the hospital reputation and respect among the best medical facilities in the world. PlacidWay is proud to have as partner Kent Hospital and to join hands with such experienced surgeons in helping patients from all over the world get access to affordable organ transplant surgery," says Pramod Goel, CEO and Founder of PlacidWay.

About PlacidWay Medical Tourism

PlacidWay is a leader in the global medical tourism industry and its goal is to offer up to date information and resources regarding medical travel, international providers, treatments, procedures and destinations for international travelers in 30 countries worldwide with more than 250 internationally accredited medical centers.