MGM Healthcare, Chennai

Doctors at MGM Healthcare in Chennai successfully performed Asias first successful lung transplant surgery on a COVID-19 survivor, on August 27, after the virus had severely damaged the patient’s lungs. 

Dr KR Balakrishnan, the chairman and director of heart and lung transplant programme at the MGM Healthcare, told NDTV that the 48-year-old patient, a Gurugram-based businessman, had contracted virus on June 8, due to which his lungs were severely affected by COVID-19 related fibrosis and only a small portion of the lungs was functioning then.
The patient was put on ventilator support on June 20, after he became breathless and his oxygen saturation levelled down. Despite of being airlifted to MGM Healthcare at Chennai from Ghaziabad on July 20, his condition kept on deteriorating. He was later put on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) support on July 25 for more than a month.
Initially we were in a dilemma when his case was referred to us. But we prioritised the patient’s overall health over anything else. We decided to proceed with the surgery. Our team of doctors and the other support staff took up the challenge and boldly stood by the decision to go ahead with the transplant without thinking about the risk to their own health and safety. We are happy for the patient as the transplanted lungs are working well, said Dr Balakrishnan.
Also read : August 29: Nagpur COVID-19 tally crosses 27,000

?Both his lungs are working well now and we have removed ECMO support. His clinical condition is stable, MGM Healthcare Co-Director Dr Suresh Rao informed.
The lungs for the transplant were received from a 34-year-old brain dead man, whose heart, liver, limbs and skin were also donated to various needy in city hospitals.
The man had been declared brain dead by doctors at Gleneagles Global Hospital in Chennai after intracerebral haemorrhage on August 27, hospital sources said.