TEHRAN — Over the holy fasting month of Ramadan (May 27-June 25), brain dead organ donors restored 12 children lives by donating their hearts at Tehran’s Shahid Rajaei Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center.

Doctor Seyed Mohammad Mahdavi, pediatric heart transplant surgeon at Shahid Rajaei Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center, lauded the donors’ families who made a great humanitarian act in the holy month of Ramadan and helped save 12 children lives who were all in critical condition and might not survive, ISNA news agency reported on Friday.

Thankfully there are not any children in critical condition at the hospital for now, Mahdavi added.

“The efforts initiated and undertook by the health ministry and the society of organ donation over the past months to raise awareness about organ donation among the public have paid off and we can actually see the tangible increase in organ donation,” he highlighted.

According to a report released by the Iranian Society of Organ Donation there are 26,000 patients waiting on the lists to receive a transplant out of which some 10,000 die every day. Nonetheless, should half of those who are diagnosed with brain death donate their organs, no one would have to wait for a transplant. 

Shahid Rajaei Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center is one of the largest heart hospitals in Asia. Designed in an area of 110000 square meter, the hospital providing cardiovascular care became fully operational in 1972.

Shahid Rajaei Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center renders services in as many different fields as adult cardiology, pediatric cardiology, cardiac surgery, catheterization, angiography, pacemaker, cardiac electrophysiology, ablation, rehabilitation, cardiac imaging (echocardiography, fetal heart echocardiography, CT scan, MRI, and radioisotope), laboratory, Holter monitoring, and outpatient care.

MQ/MG