Dozens of Young Patients in Macedonia Have Been Awaiting Heart Transplants for Years

For dozens of patients awaiting transplants, organ donation remains their only hope.

Among them is Darko Najdeski, a 33-year-old from Ohrid, who has been kept alive for seven years by two mechanical pumps, batteries and an electricity supply. He is currently in hospital because his heart can no longer cope with his condition.

In 2019, when heart transplants were not yet performed in the country, the only way to save his life was to implant the first mechanical circulatory support device. The pumps were intended as a temporary solution until a transplant, but seven years later, Darko is still waiting for a new heart.

His wife, Irena Raleva Najdeska, said the situation is extremely urgent because it is Darko’s natural heart that is failing, not the devices. According to her, the devices continue to function, but his heart can no longer do so. She explained that the situation is complicated and that the long-term use of the devices, which in this case serve only as a bridge to transplantation, is also causing other complications. For this reason, he urgently needs a heart transplant from a deceased donor so that her husband can continue to live.

Vasko Joleski, 41, from Struga, is in a similar situation. He has been living with mechanical support for more than six years. For such patients, a longer wait means increased risks and complications, making time their greatest adversary.

Vasko Joleski, president of the “Brave Heart” Association, called for a transplant finally to be performed on a patient using mechanical circulatory support, as people in this condition have been waiting for far too long. He stressed that the consequences are well known: when the pumps begin to malfunction, other organs also start to deteriorate and eventually fail. Joleski once again appealed to citizens to choose organ donation when they lose a loved one and no other option remains.

The chance of survival that Darko and Vasko are seeking could come at a family’s most difficult moment, through a decision to donate organs and save other lives.