A private jet from Israel carrying a kidney set to be used for the first crossover transplant on the island landed at the old Larnaca airport on Wednesday morning.
The kidney transplant will take place at the new transplant clinic at Nicosia general.
“It is a historic day for our health system,” said the general surgeon of the Nicosia general transplant clinic Nikos Michael. “We hope our clinic will become a point of reference for everyone in need of a transplant or suffering from kidney failure in our country.”
Last Sunday, the health ministry said that the main goal of the clinic is to help patients that need kidney transplants and have a living donor that is willing to donate.
The transplant will take place following the transnational, exchange agreement signed in 2017 between Cyprus and Israel and the bilateral contacts made by former Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantela during his visit to Israel last September.
The agreement consists of organs belonging to donors in Cyprus that are incompatible with the recipients, will be exchanged with compatible organs arriving from Israel.
In statements made to the media, Michael thanked the State Health Organisation (Okypy) “for being behind the massive effort” and the two Israeli hospitals of Tel Hashomer and Beilinson “for the excellent cooperation and for trust they have shown in the newly established Nicosia general transplant clinic”.
The transplant clinic began operating in September, and Hadjipantela signed a five-year plan to cooperate with Israel and Spain to cooperate in the transplants.
“I am very happy to see that the cooperation with Cyprus has already started,” said the director of Israel Transplant Organisation Tamar Ashkenazi.
“I hope we will continue with more organs exchanges in the future, as we are already doing with Austria, Czech Republic and United Arab Emirates,” Ashkenazi said. “We hope to have close relations with Cyprus and achieve the goals we have set.”
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