Chennai Doctors Perform Bilateral Lung Transplant on a 34-year-old Man

A team of doctors at Fortis Hospital, Vadapalani, performed a lung transplant surgery on a 34-year-old man from Chandigarh. The patient is a farmer by profession, was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease that caused scarring of lung tissues. The lung transplant surgery lasted for seven hours and the main challenge for the doctors was the patient's low body mass index (BMI). The patient's BMI was 15 and the transplant is only taken up in patients with 18-32 BMI.

The patient also had multiple co-morbidities, including a small chest cavity and multiple chest tube insertions on the sides of the lungs.

For the last two years, the patient was dependent on oxygen support and was put on the waiting list of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation for eight months.

Despite these challenges, the surgery was successfully performed and both lungs were transplanted.

The patient got the donor after a 29-year-old man in Madurai was declared brain dead after a serious accident. As the surgery was planned, the doctors also took special care of the nutritional diet, physiotherapy and also modified the medication for his body condition.

The patient is now in a stable condition and his condition has improved as he did not require oxygen support within days of the transplant. However, his condition will be reviewed in two months.

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Doctors also mentioned that the surgery cost was borne by the patient’s community in his hometown.

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Source-Medindia