The University Hospital Centre Zagreb (KBC) has performed for the first time a lung transplant on a child, the hospital's officials reported on Wednesday, adding that the hospital has lately conducted also a combined heart and liver transplant in the case of an adult patient.

A 45-year-old man received a new heart and liver, while a 12-year-old boy received a new lung. Both patients are recovering well, the doctors told a press conference, underscoring that these procedures were rare even on a global scale.

The full lung transplant programme within KBC Zagreb started almost two years ago, and so far 21 surgeries of this kind have been performed. Since this was the first time it was performed on a child, the support of a doctor from Vienna was also requested, the head of the clinic for lung diseases Miroslav Samarzija explained.

The organs came from abroad, organised by Eurotransplant.

About 70% of patients have an excellent quality of life after a heart transplant and about 90% have a “very good” quality of life.

The director of KBC Zagreb, Ante Corusic, said that Croatia is ranked at the very top of Eurotransplant in terms of the number of successfully performed solid organ transplants.

Since mid-December 2022, 18 transplants have been performed at KBC Zagreb, 10 in the last two weeks of last year and eight transplants in seven patients in the first eight days of this year. All procedures were successful.

This month there have been four liver transplants, one kidney transplant and three heart transplants. The KBC Hospital in Zagreb is the only institution in Croatia that performs transplants on children.