Ranchi: State education minister Jagarnath Mahato got a double lung transplant at the MGM hospital in Chennai on Tuesday evening. He was also taken off Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, sources at the hospital said.
Confirming the development, clinical director of lung transplant, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at MGM hospital, Dr Apar Jindal, said: “An expert team led by Dr K R Balakrishnan and Dr Suresh Rao KG operated on the patient.”
Dr Balakrishnan is a renowned lung transplant surgeon and is the director at the Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant & Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM hospital. Dr Rao is an expert in critical cardiac care, heart and lung transplantations and ECMO initiation. The team has successfully conducted four such transplants on Covid-19 patients since the outbreak of pandemic.
Mahato had tested positive for Covid-19 on September 18 and was first admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi. He was shifted to the Medica hospital here on October 1 after his condition did not improve. He was then taken to MGM hospital in Chennai after a medical board constituted by the state government recommended that Mahato be shifted to a better medical facility.
Mahato was admitted to the ECMO ICU of MGM hospital on October 19 and the doctors were waiting for a cross match for his transplant after receiving consent from the family members of the minister.
“We got an organ crossed matched with Mahato. Since his lungs hadn’t shown any signs of recovery but all other organs were doing fine and his vital parameters were within the normal range, we decided to conduct the transplant on Tuesday evening. He is currently stable,” Jindal said.