Greece is to start conducting lung transplants again, following the success of an operation last November on a 66-year-old man with chronic lung disease, doctors told reporters in Athens yesterday.

Doctors from the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center’s transplant unit said they could now carry out lung transplants on a regular basis but appealed for donors, referring to a “worrying” drop in the number of lung donors.

Thessaloniki’s Papanikolaou Hospital had carried out lung transplants in the 1990s but stopped in 2000 for reasons that were not clarified. Since then, Greeks requiring lung transplants have been obliged to travel abroad.

The press conference was also attended by Ioannis Taratsas, who had been dependant on oxygen cylinders in order to breathe until undergoing a successful lung transplant operation last November.

According to doctors, the Onassis Center would be able to conduct around 10 transplants annually if sufficient donors can be found. Two people are currently awaiting surgery, they said.