ISMETT: Dream Hospital at Le Iene

A Mother's Life-saving Gift

On March 3 during prime time in a very popular television show “Le Iene" on Italian national TV, was aired a video showing living-related liver transplant performed in June 2019 at ISMETT. A mother underwent a complex surgery to save her 8-month-old son, Lucio, suffering from an end-stage liver disease. The hospital, located in Palermo and managed by UPMC, was described as center of excellence and one of the four leading transplant centers in Europe for number of pediatric transplants performed, a proof of health care excellence in southern Italy.

The procedure, performed by Dr. Jean De Ville De Goyet (Director of the Pediatric Abdominal Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit) and his surgical team, lasted 10 hours. Dr. De Ville was presented as a world-renown leading expert in the field of transplantation who has performed over 500 pediatric transplants during his career, with a 100% success rate. Many of his older patients today are married and leading a perfectly normal life. The whole surgery was broadcasted, both the procurement and the transplant. The scrupulous surgical count at the end of the procedure was described as “a souvenir from Pittsburgh" by Dr. De Ville. This introduced the topic of UPMC. Dr. Angelo Luca, ISMETT Director, explained how ISMETT, an Italian NHS hospital, is managed by UPMC that provides the know-how and medical training.

The video showed the entire Pediatric Unit with its “state-of-the-art" rooms hosting patients and their families from Sicily and other Italian regions, but also from all over the world, including a one-year-old girl and her parents, who flew from Ukraine to Sicily.

“The day of the transplant in Palermo was the best day of our lives because our son was born again" said Lucio's father.