The Stem Cell Transplant Center within the "Louis Țurcanu" Emergency Children's Hospital in Timișoara is a landmark for Romanian Hemato-Oncology and especially for Pediatric Hemato-Oncology. This is where, in 2001, we had the first stem cell transplant performed on a child, under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Margit Șerban, who also founded the clinic based on donations from foreign NGOs. This is also the place where, in 2010, donations and sponsorships helped build three sterile rooms, a molecular biology laboratory, electrophoresis and stem cell harvesting rooms and a cell bank.

In order to turn the clinic into an Excellency Center for diagnosing and treating blood cancers, we needed to renovate and recompartmentalize the space according to European treatment rules, starting with the surface necessary for each patient, creating a controlled environment and equipping every ward with its own bathroom.

We have renovated the first Children's Stem Cell Transplant Clinic from scratch in order to increase the survival rate of patients with immunodeficiencies or blood cancers admitted here. We also brought this approximately 1.600 sqm clinic (three floors and a ground floor) up to European standards, creating correct medical circuits and conditions that would reduce the rate of intrahospital infections.

”In Pediatric Oncology, apart from the correct and complete diagnosis and a treatment adapted to the risk group of the disease, it is essential that the aggressive treatment be accompanied by quality support treatment: adequate spaces, isolation, hygienic conditions etc.”- Conf. Univ. Dr. Smaranda Arghirescu, Chief of the Pediatrics II department

The project consisted of recompartmentalizing the spaces, building bathrooms in each ward, renovating, furbishing, adding medical installations (medical gas) and an air treatment plant to ensure the atmosphere needed in a hospital environment. As a result of the investment, we renovated, modernized and built bathrooms for 23 wards (with 1 or 2 beds, for a total of 33 beds, 8 of which are meant for pre-transplant patients), we built 6 sterile rooms, 4 diagnosis labs, a treatment room with a cytostatic hood, a playroom for the children and adequate examination spaces. In addition, the wards now have modern furniture, electronic beds and access to medical gas for potential critical situations.

Ground floor

• An apheresis center
• An area for harvesting, processing, freezing and storing the stem cells
• A flow cytometry lab to diagnose acute leukemias
• A conventional cytogenetics lab to diagnose genetic diseases and mutations present in acute leukemias
• A FISH lab to highlight less gross mutations in leukemias/lymphomas
• A molecular biology lab to classify leukemia cases and find treatment by highlighting the molecular-level mutations
• Medical offices

1st floor

• 6 sterile rooms (with a positive pressure and laminar airflow)
• 2 pre-transplant wards
• Treatment rooms
• Wards

2nd floor

• A room for procedures performed under sedation (marrow taps, marrow biopsies)
• Wards
• Doctors' and nurses' wards
• A treatment room
• A kitchen

3rd floor

• Wards
• A playroom
• Doctors' offices
• A treatment room

The Stem Cell Transplant Clinic within the "Louis Țurcanu" Emergency Children's Hospital in Timișoara sees about 1.000 children admitted every year and 20-25 of them receive transplants.

In Romania, for lack of official statistics, it's estimated that the number of children with leukemia or other types of cancer is around 5,000, and every year another 500 cases are registered. The success rate in treating blood cancers in children and teenagers is under 50% in our country, while the European Union average is over 80%. One of the reasons for this situation is the precarious hygiene in Romanian hospitals.

We'd like to bring the survival rates as high as possible, so that the big battles of little people aren't decided by bacteria anymore.