Chain of Life. The second episode of the series "Stories to be continued" premieres at the Onassis Channel on YouTube

Synopsis

Madia Sotiriou is a pulmonologist and intensive care physician, who works at Evangelismos Hospital’s university intensive care unit. She also assists at the Transplant Coordination department whenever a new organ donor becomes available. Despina Hilidou is Head of Transplant Coordination at the Onassis Heart Surgery Centre, with over 25 years of experience in a field that is unfamiliar to many people, even within the medical community.

For an organ donation to take place, a bridge must be established between medical professionals like Madia Sotiriou, who must determine whether a patient has irreversible brain damage and obtain the patient's family's consent for organ donation; and medical professionals like Despina Hilidou, who, after receiving this consent, must buy time, assemble medical teams, arrange for the transplants' transportation, inform and prepare the recipients, and, most importantly, foresee any likely or unlikely obstacles that could delay this process and prove fatal for the potential recipient. In short, the two of them are trying to transform this painful loss into life. To create a sense of meaningful continuity between the donor and the recipient.

Director's note

"In the “Chain of Life” episode, the protagonists are two of the most important “links,” two healthcare professionals, Adamantia and Despoina, who each serve the transplant task from their position with great love, passion, and self-denial. Their sincere narrative is disarming, and their everyday struggle to offer life is constant and systematic. “Organ donation is the greatest gift of life, the best way to confront brain death,” Adamantia will say at one point, while Despoina will add, “It is so unfair to lose your dear one, yet you can turn death into life.”"

–Marina Danezi