Doctors successfully performed a heart transplant on a young soccer player from Bukovina
Six-year-old Mykola Zherebov successfully underwent a highly complex heart transplant, which was his only chance of survival.
This was reported by the Chernivtsi Regional Council.
Since birth, the boy has been battling a severe congenital heart defect, remaining under the close supervision of cardiologists. In his short life, he has already undergone two complex surgeries, yet his condition remained consistently critical.
During critical episodes, six-year-old Mykola’s life was sustained by a special ECMO machine. This device “temporarily takes over the functions of the heart and lungs, oxygenating the blood outside the body,” which bought time to find a donor.
A lifesaving opportunity arose in March 2026, when a compatible donor was found for the boy. It was another young Ukrainian from the Odesa region, whom doctors had been trying to save at Okhmatdyt after a severe injury.
Despite the doctors’ efforts, the boy from Odesa passed away, but his parents made a heroic decision.
“At this tragic moment for the family, the parents consented to posthumous organ donation,” which allowed doctors to save Mykola and other patients.
The organ transplant surgery was performed by specialists at the Center for Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery after confirming full biological compatibility. Currently, Mykola Zherebov is “recovering and feeling well,” gradually returning to his normal childhood life.
During his rehabilitation, the young patient received a special visitor—Andriy Telesnenko, a well-known Ukrainian soccer player and coach of “Chornomorets.”
The athlete, who has been living with a donor heart for two years himself, came to support the boy before his discharge.
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