Era of hope: Azerbaijani surgeon performs first deceased-donor heart transplant Professor Musayev speaks to Caliber.Az

At the end of October 2025, Azerbaijan — and the entire Caucasus — witnessed its first heart transplant using a heart from a deceased donor. This landmark surgery marked a breakthrough in the nation’s medical history and a major step forward for the country’s healthcare system.

The operation was performed by Azerbaijan’s leading cardiovascular surgeon, Professor Kamran Musayev, Chief Physician of the Central Clinic, Honoured Doctor of the Republic and Doctor of Medical Sciences. Although he has carried out thousands of cardiac surgeries, this was the first transplant of his career.

How did this historic operation unfold, and what does it mean for our healthcare system, for Azerbaijan, and for those awaiting transplants or wishing to become donors? Caliber.Az spoke with Professor Musayev to find out.

A tremendous achievement for our healthcare system

— Dr. Kamran, despite your vast experience in medicine and cardiac surgery, this unique operation was your first. How did you manage to successfully perform a heart transplant from a deceased person to a living patient on your very first attempt?

— When a person who possesses inner determination and the resources granted by the Almighty sets concrete goals and has dreams, achieving them requires a powerful desire. Setting the right goals and choosing the right paths to reach them is the primary route to success.

If we talk about this operation, first and foremost, it should be seen both as a symbol of the success of Azerbaijan’s healthcare system and as a symbol of saving a human life. And I am happy that, as a doctor and as a son of my country, I was able to perform it.

On the one hand, heart transplantation is an immense technical undertaking: preparing the patient, removing the heart of the deceased donor, removing the heart of the living patient, connecting the artificial heart, and then transplanting the organ, connecting all the vessels, and ensuring subsequent rehabilitation. This requires tremendous experience and specific expertise in the field of cardiac surgery.

On the other hand, if we count from the time of my residency, I have already been performing heart surgeries for 30 years. And I can say that every day, ever since my training in Türkiye, I had been preparing for the moment when I would one day perform a heart transplant, continually improving my knowledge.

I was always interested in transplantation — in fact, the topic of my PhD dissertation was precisely this field. In addition, I later underwent further training through advanced courses at transplant centers in the United Kingdom (at Harefield Hospital) and the United States (at the Mayo Clinic).

— Still, no one — including you — could have known in advance when this moment would come… And yet this operation has opened a new era in Azerbaijani medicine.

— We understood that this was no ordinary surgery. That meant much greater responsibility, and of course, added stress. But the operation on the 19-year-old patient was successful, and this is yet another sign of Azerbaijan’s strong medical leadership and the development of our healthcare system. The surgery lasted 7–8 hours. In fact, it consisted of two operations: the removal of the donor’s heart and the removal of the patient’s diseased heart, followed by the transplantation of the new one.

The indication for this procedure is the most severe stage of heart failure. This means that medicine can no longer help the patient by any other means — not through invasive methods, not through open-heart surgery, not with medication, nothing. The only option is transplantation. Without it, the patient dies rather quickly.

I want to emphasise that without the right team, it is impossible to perform such complex operations. More than 20 specialists took part in ours — cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensivists, perfusionists, cardiologists, nurses, lab technicians, and support staff. And believe me, every one of them had been preparing for this for many years. The operation went as if it were not the first, but the hundredth time we had performed it, and I am proud of this team.

— How do you assess the future prospects of transplantation in the country?

— Naturally, this does not mean we performed one operation and can now rest. We firmly believe that we will carry out many similar surgeries at the Central Clinic. In fact, both my team and I are ready to perform them on a weekly basis. But we need donors.

The heart is the central organ of the body, and it also carries a certain mystical meaning. A heart transplant is, figuratively speaking, a transplantation of life itself. There is a full heart transplantation program, and I believe operations like this will have a profoundly positive impact on the entire healthcare system of our republic. A heart transplant is one of the most impressive indicators of a country’s medical success. I believe, hope, and fully expect that the operation we performed will significantly strengthen citizens’ trust in Azerbaijani medicine and doctors — and we are already seeing signs of this.

Speaking about prospects, I must also note that the foundation for organ transplantation in Azerbaijan was laid long ago. Since 2013, we have been performing surgeries to implant artificial hearts. But an appropriate legal framework is also crucial. During the presidency of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, in 1999, the law “On Organ Transplantation” was adopted. Later, this law was significantly improved, and in 2020, President Ilham Aliyev signed the law “On Transplantation of Human Organs or Tissues,” which created the full legal basis for such operations. In 2022, the Coordination Centre for Organ Donation and Transplantation was established. Without all this, clinics and surgeons would not have any legal grounds to perform transplant operations. Now this process is fully organised and carried out in complete accordance with global standards. Every Azerbaijani can be proud of this.

The number of voluntary donors is growing

— How does the preparation for a transplant and the subsequent rehabilitation process work?

— Patients come to us, we conduct a full medical examination, and prepare their medical dossier, which is then sent to the Coordination Centre. There, they are registered and placed on the waiting list. When a donor becomes available, the Coordination Centre compares the donor’s indicators with those of the patients on the list, and once a match is found, they notify the patient that a donor has been identified. After that, the preparation for the operation begins.

Following the surgery, we usually discharge the patient within one to two weeks. After that, they remain under constant medical supervision for several months and take immunosuppressive medications so that their own immune system does not reject the new heart. The dosage and duration of the treatment are determined by the doctor. Once the course is completed, the patient can live a normal life.

— What challenges do you see on the path of transplantation?

— There is a very important point: a heart can only be transplanted within the first four hours after it is removed from a deceased donor. After that, the cells begin to die, and transplantation becomes impossible…

There are other specific factors as well — for example, the donor and the patient must have a full blood group match. Theoretically, we can transplant a woman’s heart into a man and vice versa, but in such cases, weight and size matter, because a woman’s heart is usually smaller in both weight and volume...

But there is good news: according to the Coordination Centre, after the first heart transplant operation was performed, the number of voluntary donors (people who officially expressed their wish during their lifetime to donate their organs after death) has increased significantly.

We see this in our daily practice as well. For successful operations — both at the Central Clinic and in other medical institutions — strong support from society in the form of donors is essential; without it, these operations are impossible. And since a person has only one heart, unlike, for example, kidneys, heart transplantation can only be done using the heart of a deceased donor. There is no alternative. That is why serious support for organ donation is needed.

Thanks to the Almighty, we Azerbaijanis are a very kind and humane people, and over the last two or three years, I have observed an increase in the number of those who wish to donate their organs to others after death.

— Does an organ transplant affect a person?

— There is a lot of talk about this. But as a doctor, I can say with complete certainty: after receiving a donor organ, absolutely no changes occur in a person’s psyche, moral qualities, or emotional state.

— What do you think about the plans mentioned by some scientists to transplant a human brain or to copy the brain’s information into an android-type robot body, thereby essentially ensuring the immortality of the individual?

— I read a lot about this. But it is important to understand that theoretical plans and concepts are one thing, and concrete, practical steps are another. I have very strong doubts that such plans will be implemented in the coming years.

Donorship – a sign of humanity and nobility

— What would you like to say to the relatives of those who may potentially become organ donors?

— There is an important point here: I would like people to voluntarily choose the path of posthumous organ donation during their lifetime, without placing this responsibility on their relatives. This is a very sensitive issue. Making such a difficult decision regarding a close family member requires high moral qualities and deep human compassion.

And in my experience, the families who make this decision truly possess these qualities. When the heart of your son, brother, or husband continues to beat in someone else’s chest — that is the peak of human compassion, and I bow my head before those who agree to posthumous organ donation. It is the highest form of nobility.

— Dr. Kamran, you are a fairly young man, and readers may have a reasonable question: are you personally willing to become a donor?

— Yes. During my lifetime, I wrote an official declaration stating that after my death, I am willing to donate my organs. It is quite easy to do — there is a website, odtkm.gov.az/az/registration, where there is an application form, and anyone can fill it out.

— I would also like to look at this question philosophically — does the heart transplant you performed represent a kind of immortality? Meaning, as long as the person who received the transplant lives, as long as another person’s heart beats in their chest, that other person has not truly died…

— People need serious, thoughtful conversations about this — proper education. There are religious, social, and philosophical aspects involved, not only medical ones. We all will die eventually; a person knows this from childhood, knows that their time in this world is temporary. And we must clearly show people the benefits of organ donation.

As a doctor, I would also like to speak openly and without embellishment – a person’s body in the grave will not remain in its usual form; soft tissues decompose over time, and only the skeleton remains. This means that everything that could save someone else’s life will simply be wasted…

Islam also encourages saving the lives of others. In fact, before leaving this world, a person can give life to several others — because in Azerbaijan it is possible not only to transplant a heart, but also a liver, kidneys, and corneal tissue. The greatest good a person can do before departing this world is to bequeath their organs to others so that they may live. In a sense, this is also a continuation of our own life.