Man gets double lung transplant, recovers

Doctors at a corporate hospital here on Thursday claimed to have successfully performed a double lung transplant surgery on a 39-year-old man and after a "robust" recovery, the recipient was discharged.

Doctors at a corporate hospital here on Thursday claimed to have successfully performed a double lung transplant surgery on a 39-year-old man and after a "robust" recovery, the recipient was discharged. The patient's lung condition deteriorated significantly in the months before the transplant when the country was in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He was put on Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine to support his heart and lungs till donor lungs were available, Apollo hospitals said in a statement. "The double lung transplant surgery took place successfully on July 29, at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, and after a robust recovery, the transplant recipient was discharged on August 27," it said.

Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group, Dr Prathap C Reddy said double lung transplant during COVID times "is an exemplary achievement." Transplant surgeon Dr T Sunder said limiting physical contact with the recipient, an all time feature of the hospital's transplant process, helped in maintaining "excellent" long term outcomes with low infection rates.