For the first time in Ukraine, a bone marrow transplant (BMT) was performed on a two-month-old baby at the Okhmatdyt Clinic in Kyiv. The donor for the child was his four-year-old brother.

This was reported on the hospital's Facebook page. The boy was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency and could only be saved by a bone marrow transplant.

As noted, at birth, Maksym, like other newborns, had a blood sample taken for neonatal screening for 21 rare diseases.

"At the 48th hour of life, the child's blood samples were taken for testing. The Lviv Screening Centre conducted the initial test, and then the disappointing result was confirmed at the Okhmatdyt expert centre. Thanks to the screening, the disease was detected before the first symptoms appeared and timely treatment was started," said Natalia Olkhovych, Head of the Medical Genetics Laboratory at the National Children's Specialised Hospital "Ohmatdyt".

The boy was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency. Without bone marrow transplantation, only 5% of children live to the 300th day of life, while 95% die due to infections. This hereditary genetic disease had been causing premature deaths in the boy's family for several generations. The last to die was his mother's own brother, who was only a few days old. However, thanks to the efforts of the medical team, this vicious circle was stopped.

Initially, the boy received treatment at the Western Ukrainian Specialised Children's Centre in Lviv, and later medical specialists referred him to the bone marrow transplantation unit in Kyiv. To ensure effective treatment of the child, a multidisciplinary team from different departments of the Kyiv Clinical Hospital "Okhmatdyt" took part in this process. Four-year-old brother Evgeny became a bone marrow donor for Maksym. The boy was only two months old when the transplant took place, and now he has become the youngest patient in Ukraine to undergo such an operation.

"The bone marrow transplant made it possible to correct the boy's immune system. Now he has a chance for a full and long life. His immune system is no longer afraid of infections," says Oleksandr Lysytsia, head of the bone marrow transplantation department.

The boy has already been discharged from the hospital and returned home to Ivano-Frankivsk region with his mother.

Earlier it was reported that a 4-year-old boy from Rivne became a posthumous donor and saved the lives of three children. The child's parents agreed to a posthumous organ transplant to give other children a chance at life.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, a 6-year-old child underwent a heart transplant for the first time in Ukraine. The girl is doing well.

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