A brain-dead man has given new life to a Covid-19 patient with a severe lung infection and given new hope to a young Mumbai woman after her lungs and hands were transplanted to the respective donors.
The wife of the 34-year-old deceased man also agreed to donate his heart, liver and skin to various recipients at city hospitals.
Incidentally, the hands were flown to Mumbai in hopes of giving the woman a pair of real limbs after she lost her hands in a train accident in Ghatkopar on January 12, 2014.
The transplant that benefited more than one recipient was made possible by the donation of the deceased, who was declared brain dead by doctors at Gleneagles Global Hospital in Chennai following an intracerebral hemorrhage on Thursday, hospital sources said.
After the consent of his wife, the organs of the deceased were assigned to various hospitals.
While Global Hospital Chennai retained the liver, heart, lungs, kidneys and skin they were donated to different hospitals in the city.
Her hands went to Monika More, a young woman from suburban Mumbai, who was wearing artificial hands and is now ready to get a real pair, if the bilateral surgery is successful.
Heart and lung transplant surgeries were performed at MGM Healthcare here.
Incidentally, the 48-year-old Delhi lung recipient turned out to be the first case of “successful completion of a critical bilateral lung transplant” in a Covid-19 positive patient, MGM Healthcare, where he is receiving treatment, he said.
He claimed this was Asia’s “first known lung transplant” into a Covid-19 positive patient and the second at the hospital since the shutdown began.
The transplant was performed on Aug. 27 and after the transplant, the patient is doing well in the transplant ICU at MGM Healthcare, the hospital said in a statement.
The patient’s lungs were severely damaged due to Covid-19-related fibrosis after he contracted the infection on June 8, and only a small part of the lungs were still functioning at the time.
As he ran out of breath and his oxygen saturation dropped, he was put on ventilation on June 20. His condition continued to worsen despite this and he was flown to MGM Healthcare from Ghaziabad on July 20, the hospital said.
As his lung condition continued to worsen, he was supported on July 25 with ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) for more than a month. These patients are difficult to manage even in well-equipped ICUs.
“We were initially in a dilemma when they referred us to their case. But we prioritize the overall health of the patient over anything else. We decided to continue with the surgery.
Our team of doctors and the rest of the support staff accepted the challenge and courageously defended 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. KR Balakrishnan, chairman and director of cardiac sciences and director of MGM Healthcare’s heart and lung transplant program here, who led the team.
According to Dr. Suresh Rao, co-director of the Institute for Heart and Lung Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support, the hospital accepted the heart from the same donor from another patient who was awaiting a heart transplant, “thus giving two people a new life. “More, studying at a university in Mumbai, lost his hands at a local Ghatkopar train station in a train accident in 2014.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya supported her by obtaining electronic artificial hands from his social team ‘Yuvak Pratisthan’ in July of the same year.
While More completed her graduation and began working at a local hospital in Kurla as a social worker, she subsequently registered for a bilateral hand transplant at Global Hospital, located in Parel in that city.
Somaiya said that the cost of his transplant is borne by Yuvak Pratisthan and the Global hospital.
“The surgery was proposed in the summer itself, but had to be postponed after the coronavirus crisis. Finally, the hospital and the More family decided to perform the surgery on August 27, ”Somaiya said.
“The hands were recovered from a deceased donor at a private hospital in Chennai and flown to Mumbai on Thursday. The surgery performed by a 12-member team led by Dr. Nilesh Satbhai included plastic, microvascular and reconstructive surgeons, orthopedic surgeons and anesthetists began Thursday night and was completed on Friday night, “said a statement from Global Hospital. .
The patient has been transferred to the ICU after the operation for further treatment, he said.
A hospital spokesperson thanked the donor family, the donor hospital, the Zonal Transplant Coordination Center, Transtan, the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization and the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization for the timely coordination and allocation.
“It goes without saying that the support provided by the traffic police and airport authorities in Mumbai and Chennai ensured the timely transportation of the organ,” the spokesman added.
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