The Ministry of Health ordered the return to work of dismissed transplantologists Kaabak and Babenko

The head of the Russian Ministry of Health, Veronika Skvortsova, instructed the director of the National Medical Research Center (NMRC) for children's health to include Kaabak and Nadezhda Babenko in the group of transplantologists at the children's center. This became known following the minister’s meeting with Kaabak, TASS reports.

At the end of October, it became known that the transplant department at the National Medical Research Center for Children's Health (NCCH) was being liquidated. From there, leading transplantologists Mikhail Kaabak and Nadezhda Babenko are fired, and Anatoly Popa also leaves as head of the department.

Kaabak told Such Things that the main reason for the reorganization of the department was the use of an induction immunosuppression protocol, which was not approved by the Ministry of Health. This means that during the operation, doctors used a drug that is indicated for multiple sclerosis, and during transplantation they use an “off-label” drug - when there are no instructions. Alemtuzumab is recommended by the International Society of Transplantation, Kaabak said.

The Ministry of Health assured that all children who need liver or kidney transplants will receive highly qualified medical care, despite Kaabak’s dismissal. In support of the fired surgeon’s team, social media users staged a flash mob, demanding that doctors be returned to work.