Doctors revealed that a child who received a kidney transplant from his father with a different blood group in a first-of-its-kind surgery in Austria is doing well.

The extraordinary surgery involving the 14-year-old boy and his father from the city of Vienna, Austria, reportedly took place at the University Hospital of Innsbruck, in Tyrol, in mid-December 2022.

Reports claimed that the child had suffered a kidney dysfunction due to a genetic disease and was in need of an immediate transplant from a donor with the same blood type.

But since his father was not a match, nephrologist Thomas Mueller-Sacherer who followed the child’s condition turned to the specialists from the Innsbruck hospital.

The hospital’s experts then successfully took on the case after having had experience with similar operations on adults throughout the years.

They then reportedly ran various checks to monitor the child’s condition and prevent his body from rejecting the transplant during the surgery.

Deputy director of the Nephrology Department at the Innsbruck University Hospital Hannes Neuwirt said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “The critical phase starts exactly 28 days before the transplantation.

“At this point, the targeted elimination of the antibodies relevant to rejection begins.

“This happens on one hand with medication and on the other hand with the help of mechanical processes.”

Senior Physician at the hospital’s Department of Visceral, Transplant and Thoracic Surgery Katrin Kienzl-Wagner who performed the operation said: “Exactly two days before his 14th birthday, we were able to insert the kidney donated by his father.”

The hospital’s head of the Paediatrics Department Siegfried Waldegger added: “After the transplantation, a phase which lasts a few days begins, in which the patient, his new organ and also the antibody levels have to be monitored very closely.

“Even in the weeks after being discharged, the patient sometimes has to have several check-ups a week.”

Mueller-Sacherer explained that the 14-year-old boy is currently under postoperative care in his home in Vienna and said: “Both, the father and son are already doing great.

“Especially in the teenage years, the positive influence of a transplant on physical development is enormous.

“Not to mention the consequences of having to have dialysis for finding one’s place emotionally and socially, for example at school, but also in everyday life.

“These negative effects can now be largely avoided through transplantation.”