Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed, www.makatimed.net.ph) successfully carried out a landmark multi-facility multi-organ harvest, marking a significant advancement in the country’s transplant program and offering renewed hope to patients in need of life-saving procedures.
Conducted in April 2026, the five-organ retrieval (liver, lungs, kidneys, heart, and corneas) was performed on a patient who succumbed to acute brain hemorrhage.
This achievement is the first of its kind in the Philippines, surpassing a previous three-organ retrieval conducted in 2025.
The complex procedure was executed through close coordination of MakatiMed’s multidisciplinary team of Physicians, Surgeons, Nurses, and Operating Room Personnel, with specialists from the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), the Philippine Heart Center, the Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines, and the Lung Center of the Philippines. The effort was made possible under the Human Organ Preservation Effort (HOPE) Program, supported by a memorandum of agreement with the NKTI.
In honor of the donor, MakatiMed medical and allied health professionals conducted an ‘Honor Walk,’ a solemn tradition where hospital staff line the corridors in silent tribute as the donor is transported to the operating room.
MakatiMed interim co-president and CEO and medical director Saturnino P. Javier, MD, expressed both gratitude and respect for the donor and her family, stating, ‘As we congratulate and thank our medical and nursing teams who worked tirelessly for hours on this milestone endeavor, we enjoin the MakatiMed community to pray for the eternal repose of the soul of MakatiMed’s first multi-organ donor and extend our profound gratitude to the family, as well.’