The Saint Paul Hospital in Hanoi has successfully performed itssecond kidney transplant, where the patient and donor were siblings.

The patient, a 32-year-old from Hanoi's Chuong My district, received a kidney from his 29-year-old brother.

According to the hospital's doctors, the transplant on March 20 wasdifficult as the patient had been suffering from renal failure for along time apart from heart failure and high blood pressure. He wasreported to be stable after the transplant.

Fourmonths ago, Saint Paul Hospital became the first hospital inHanoi – the 13th in the whole country — to perform a kidney transplanton a patient, a 29-year-old woman who received the organ from her49-year-old mother. The two have since recovered from the surgery.

Like the first transplant, the second, which typically costs 300 million VND (14,200 USD), was provided free of charge.

The hospital said the next three kidney transplants will also be freeif the patients have a health insurance card. If not, they will have topay half the cost of the surgery.

Depending on thesuccess of the second transplant, the hospital expects to perform onesurgery per month. Patients with relatives able to donate kidneys willbe operated on first, and at a later stage, organs will be taken frombrain-dead donors.-VNA