Hyderabad doctors perform first-ever double lung transplant for Covid-19 patient

The patient, Md Rizwan alias Monu, 32, from Chandigarh, received lungs from a brain-dead person in Kolkata. Upon recovery, he was discharged from the hospital on Friday.

Doctors at Hyderabad-based Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) on Friday claimed to have performed India’s first-ever double lung transplant surgery on a Covid-19 patient.

Hyderabad doctors with double lung transplant patient. (HT PHOTO)

The patient, Md Rizwan alias Monu, 32, from Chandigarh, received lungs from a brain-dead person in Kolkata. Upon recovery, he was discharged from the hospital on Friday.

“Post discharge, the patient needs close monitoring, bio bubble environment and careful drug control for at least six weeks,” Dr Sandeep Attawar, who led the team of doctors in the surgery, told reporters.

Dr Attawar, a thoracic organ transplantation surgeon at KIMS, said Rizwan was admitted to the hospital last month with severe sarcoidosis that later led to fibrosis of the lungs. As the condition of the patient deteriorated rapidly, a double lung transplant was the only permanent option for cure, he said.

“Such patients are extremely sick, undernourished and bed-ridden before the transplant. In the case of Rizwan, the situation worsened when the patient contracted Covid-19 while awaiting his double lung transplant. Due to Covid-19, his oxygen requirement increased from 15 litres to 50 litres per minute in the past eight weeks,” he said.

Fortunately, a match to his lungs was found in a person who was declared braindead in Kolkata. The harvested lungs were airlifted to Hyderabad to save Rizwan’s life. “The procedure was complex and had little scope for errors. Only a timely transplant of lungs helped save the patient,” Dr Attawar said.