After the conclusion of the agreement, Croatia's Health Minister Darko Milinovic said in Zagreb that all Croatian patients who need new lungs will go for transplantation to Vienna and will be included in the Viennese hospital's list of patents waiting for organ transplantation.
Zagreb's Jordanovac hospital, specialised in treating respiratory organs' diseases, will also begin projects which will enable it to carry out lung transplant operations very soon.
"Annually 30 to 40 Croatian patients need new lungs, and cooperation with the Vienna General Hospital gives them hope," Milinovic said.
Dr. Walter Klepetko, who is in charge of the organ transplant programme at the Vienna General Hospital, said his team had been performing transplant operations for 20 years.
According to him, 63 percent of patients who have undergone transplant surgeries live for five years on average after the operation. One of his patients has been living for 16 years with the transplanted lungs.
This year, Croatia raised budgetary funds for organ transplants to HRK 80 million from 45 million in 2008. In 2000, 40 organs were transplanted in the country, and in 2008 this figure reached some 250 organs.