CLEVELAND — On February 24 Dr. Andreas Tzakis participated in a medical and scientific undertaking that the distinguished physician is not shy about calling a miracle.
Dr. Tzakis’ 26-year old patient became the first in the US to receive a uterus transplant.
After a nine-hour operation at the Cleveland Clinic of Weston, FL, the woman born without a uterus is now expected to be able to become pregnant and give birth.
It is challenging to find a matching donor, nut just minutes after the woman’s name entered the waiting list for a transplant, match emerged.
“I was shocked,” Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, the director of solid organ transplantation in Weston told the New York Times. “I really considered it an act of God.”
The 9-hour operation, longer than expected, followed in less than 24 hours.
“I have prayed that God would allow me the opportunity to experience pregnancy, and here we are at the beginning of that journey,” the woman said on March 7 a news conference. Only her first name is known – Lindsey. She and her 26-year old husband Blake have three adopted sons.
“Uterus transplant surgery, still experimental, is meant to help women who want to become pregnant but cannot because they were born without a uterus, suffered damage to it or had to have it removed. Between 3 percent and 5 percent of women of childbearing age worldwide are estimated to be infertile for these reasons, and about 50,000 women in the United States are thought to be potential transplant candidates,” the Times reported.
Baylor UniversityMedical Center at Dallas and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have similar pilot programs.
If the first transplants succeed, the procedure could come into widespread use, said Dr. David K. Klassen, chief medical officer of an organ sharing network.
“The donor, healthy and in her 30s, had several children, and had died suddenly, said Dr. Tzakis, who did not give the cause…Dr. Tzakis said the call about Lindsey’s donor had come in the middle of the night, and he and a gynecologic surgeon, Dr. Tommaso Falcone, had immediately flown to another city to remove the uterus. As soon as they determined that the organ was healthy, they notified surgeons back in Cleveland to begin preparing Lindsey,” according to the Times, which noted that “Medically, uterus transplants are a new frontier. Ethically, they reflect an increasing acceptance that transplants are justified not only to save lives, but also to improve the quality of life. That belief has already led to hand and face transplants for people with horrific injuries. Penis transplants may be next: Doctors at Johns Hopkins University plan to perform them for men wounded in combat.”
Dr. Tzakis is the eldest of three children. His father was a chief engineer in the Greek Navy who could be away for long stretches of time, so they were actually raised by their mother.
He told Dr. Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt of the University of Miami “My mother was very close with my father, so he always knew what was happening in the house. He would call us from Japan, ‘Congratulations, for your new scholarship.’ And he would bring a special toy for us when he came home for every occasion. Even while he was away, we never really felt like we were apart – we were a very close family. The focus of the attention of my parents was on us, children, including providing us with instant gratification for every success. So, when I succeeded in the entrance exams to Medical School – I was presented with a brand new car.”
“My brother and my sister received the same present when they entered the University,” he said, adding .”My parents achieved their objectives with all three of us. My sister went to medical school; she is the director of a neonatology unit. My brother is a dentist; he is a professor in the Dental School of Athens.”
Dr. Tzakis attended at the University of Athens School of Medicine, and earned his Phd at the National University of Athens. He served his internship and residency in the US, where he also had a fellowship.