West Bengal on Tuesday witnessed its first lung transplantation after doctors at a private hospital in Kolkata successfully conducted a marathon surgery to give an IT professional a new lease of life, an official of the medical establishment said.
The operation on the male patient started late on Monday night and took around 11-12 hours for the doctors to complete the process of transplanting the organ which came from a 52-year brain dead person in Gujarat.
The recipient, who developed complications following recovery from Covid-19, is on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) support for over three months as both of his lungs were completely damaged, he said.
“The surgery ended this morning and the patient is on ECMO support which must be maintained for a few days. He is under observation of the treating doctors. He will remain under observation for the next 72 hours,” the official told PTI.
The organ of a patient from Gujarat's Surat was flown in an air ambulance to the city at around 9.40 pm on Monday and was rushed to the hospital in the southern part of the city via a green corridor created for the purpose.
"The recipient was affected with severe Covid pneumonia and has been on ECMO support. It was also not working well for him and he was required to undergo a transplant," the official said.
Dr. Kunal Sarkar, senior Cardiac surgeon and head of the private hospital, said, “Lung transplant in Covid patients is a very high risk and challenging procedure. Post-Covid lung transplant is one of the most stringent surgical challenges. Our team was equal to the task. We have covered some distance, but still have quite some way to go.” A lung transplant is reserved for people who have tried other medications or treatments, but their conditions haven't sufficiently improved.
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