A 31-year-old man, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 in March, has become the first person to undergo a lung transplant in the city.
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Doctors at Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket, who performed the life-saving procedure, said the patient, a resident of Hardoi in UP, was still on the ventilator but was awake and stable.
The Uttar Pradesh resident was diagnosed with silicosis, a long-term lung disease caused by inhaling large amounts of crystalline silica dust, about a year ago. This had already compromised his lung function. When the patient contracted Covid-19, deterioration of lung function accelerated. He had to be put on oxygen support almost immediately and remained so for nearly four months. Without a lung transplant, he may not have survived for long.
It took nearly 10 hours, from 10.30 pm on Saturday to 8.30 am on Sunday, to conduct the transplant. The procedure involved making an incision in the chest, cutting off the airways and blood vessels to the lung, removing the diseased organ, replacing it with the healthy donor lung, and reattaching the airways and blood vessels before closing the incision.
The donor’s lungs were from a 49-year-old woman from Jaipur who had suffered fatal head injuries in a road accident recently. She was declared brain dead by the treating doctors at a private hospital. The family overcame their grief and came forward to donate the organs following counseling, the hospital in Jaipur said. The harvested lungs were brought to Delhi by an Air India flight according to officials at Max Hospital.
According to a senior doctor, Covid-19 is leading to irreversible lung damage in many patients with no prior history of lung disease. This may increase the demand for lung transplants in the coming days.
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