In Lviv, a 12-year-old boy received a heart transplant from a deceased girl
In Lviv, a 12-year-old patient received a heart transplant from a 10-year-old girl who died in a traffic accident. The operation was performed by cardiac surgeons from two hospitals in Lviv’s First Medical Association—St. Nicholas Hospital and St. Panteleimon Hospital. This was the first time such a transplant was performed directly within the walls of a children’s medical facility.
The past few years have brought many difficult trials for 12-year-old Nazar Mazur from the Vinnytsia region. In 2023, the boy was diagnosed with leukemia—blood cancer—and his mother, Anastasia, with thyroid cancer. All of this happened on the same day. The despair the woman felt at that moment is difficult for her to put into words:
“That day, it felt like my life was over, that I was completely alone in the world with such grief.” At the time, Anastasia’s husband and Nazar’s father was on the front lines. So the soldier was unable to support his loved ones.
Doctors in Vinnytsia immediately began a long course of chemotherapy for Nazar. And three months later, during a brief break in treatment, the boy was admitted to the intensive care unit with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. He could barely breathe: his lungs were functioning at only 10% capacity. The doctors managed to treat the pneumonia, but the illness had irreversibly and severely damaged the young patient’s heart.
The new diagnosis: dilated cardiomyopathy. Nazar’s heart had stretched and lost its ability to pump blood effectively. The ejection fraction drops to a critical 10%, causing shortness of breath even at rest. Nazar clearly remembers what he told his mom then: “Let me go. I can’t take it anymore.”
Only an immediate heart transplant could save the boy. At that very moment, tragedy strikes another family. A 10-year-old girl suffers life-threatening injuries in a car accident, and doctors are forced to declare her brain dead. Despite the pain of their loss, the parents of the deceased child consented to posthumous organ donation. And it turned out that her heart was a match for Nazar. The boy now had a chance.
The heart transplant is performed jointly by leading cardiac surgeons from Lviv’s First Medical Association: Alexander Yachnik, head of the pediatric cardiac surgery department at St. Nicholas Hospital and a pediatric cardiac surgeon, and Roman Domashich, head of the Heart and Vascular Center at St. Panteleimon Hospital. The operation lasts 3 hours. Nazar’s new heart begins to beat while he is still on the operating table. Incidentally, this is the first transplant ever performed within the walls of St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital.
The surgery took place on April 30. Nazar is now feeling well. His feet are warm again, not cold. The boy walks confidently through the hospital corridors without getting out of breath.
“Before the illness, our life was ordinary: home-work-home. And then suddenly our son was fading away right before our eyes. And only a donor heart could help him. I pray every day and thank the family of the girl who, despite their terrible loss, agreed to the donation and saved our Nazar. We want as many people as possible to know about the transplant,” says Anastasia.
Nazar can now dream again. He wants to become the president of Ukraine and help children. But first—he just wants to return to his hometown of Ladyzhyn and eat lavash with cheese on the grill.
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