Eduard Sokolov celebrated 15 years of his life with a donor heart at the Heart Institute
On October 2, 2018, the Kharkov citizen Eduard Sokolov, who has lived with a transplanted heart for 15 years, celebrated an important anniversary of the transplant operation at the Heart Institute, Kyiv.
In a warm, heartfelt atmosphere, Eduard met with a team of doctors headed by the Director of the Heart Institute Borys Todurov, who in the distant 2003 presented him a second life; this was the first successful heart transplant in Ukraine. The attendees enjoyed a large cake in the form of a heart while air balloons and a large number of “15” under the ceiling emphasized the solemnity of the event.
Representatives of the mass media attended the meeting, for which a press-briefing took place on the occasion of the event. During the briefing, Professor Borys Todurov and his colleagues not only mentioned the details of events that are of great importance for Ukrainian medicine but also discussed modern problems of transplantation in Ukraine.
In an interview with the Ukrainian Reporter, Professor Borys Todurov said: “In total, eight cardiac transplantation operations were performed in Ukraine. But none of the patients has lived for so long, as Eduard Sokolov. On average in Europe people after transplantation live 12-13 years. Eduard lives for 15 years now, and today he is a calling card of our Ukrainian medicine. When asked about the level of our medicine in the West, I answer that I have a patient who has lived for 15 years after heart transplantation. We have shown that after a heart transplant, patients can live for a long time. These are people who are socially and physically adapted, even in 15 years they are in good physical shape. What a gift of fate it is. ”
