BENGALURU:BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals, performed two double lung transplants in the city on July 4 and July 7. Both patients are senior citizens, 61 and 62-year-old, who were suffering from an advanced interstitial lung disease for a prolonged period.
Transplant is the only option left for those suffering from this end-stage lung disease, caused by long-term exposure to hazardous materials, such as asbestos or coal dust, or can be caused by an auto-immune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis; but once lung scarring occurs, it is generally irreversible, which is why transplant is required to replace the affected lung.
The two patents were operated upon by Dr Sandeep Attawar, Program Director and Chair Cardiac Surgeries and Thoracic Organ Transplant, and his team of lung specialists. This is one of Attawar team’s 40 double lung transplants in the country, which is one of the highest in the country. Dr Attawar spoke to The New Indian Express on the rarity of getting two lungs in the West which is quite the contrary in India.
The first double lung transplant in the state was done on June 20 in Narayana Health on a 28-year-old man. Unlike in the case of heart transplants, where they have to reach the recipient’s body within four hours, lungs can be transplanted within six hours of being harvested.
“In the US, for individuals older than 60, only one lung per one individual is given as there are a lot of people on the waiting list.Since we do not have a national database where the status of organs is updated, the distribution is arbitrary. There is a great need for donor lungs,” said Dr Attawar.
Suresh Babu (61), a native of Thrissur who was a driver in Qatar, became the second patient in the state to undergo a double lung transplant on July 4. His 27-year-old younger daughter Sruthi Alok Told TNIE that he was still in the ICU on a ventilator. The procedure costs `35 lakh.
“Getting off the ventilator is the prime requisite post transplant. The faster you are off it the better it is for the new lung. When the patient is on the ventilator the chances of clearing the airway is very small. When small bits of phlegm get stuck in the airway and get infected and the patients can succumb to infection,” said the doctor.
Jayanth Kumar Shah (62), a cloth merchant from Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, underwent the transplant on July 7 and his son-in-law Akash Shah was hopeful of his father-in-law being shifted from the ICU soon. “It was a five-and-half hour procedure and though he is still on the ventilator and heavily dosed, we have been told he is doing well,” Akash said.
On the survival rate of double lung transplant patients, Dr Attawar said, “In India, since the science is still in its nascent stage, above one year survival rate is at 76 per cent. Internationally, it is 86 per cent to 88 per cent at one year. We will have CT scans, bronchoscopy and blood tests to see if the recipient is experiencing rejection.”