NEW DELHI: A 34-year-old man got a new lease of life after he underwent successful surgery to remove his right kidney and a portion of his left lung which had been severely infected with mucormycosis or black fungus post-Covid. A multidisciplinary team of doctors performed the surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, which claimed that this case of mucormycosis involving a kidney, lung, and sinus was being reported in medical literature as the “first such case in the world happening after Covid”.
The patient, a resident of Ghaziabad, was brought to the hospital with post-Covid complications, which included breathing difficulties, blood in sputum, and high-grade fever. After investigation, it was found that the mucor had not only penetrated his nasal cavity but also his left lung and the right kidney, the hospital said in a statement.
“The portion of the lung and the kidney both had been severely damaged and there was a fear of further spread. Therefore an emergency removal of mucor-infected areas was planned,” it said. The team that performed the surgery included Dr Sabyasachi Bal, a thoracic surgeon who removed the infected lung, Dr Manu Gupta, a senior urologist who removed the kidney, and Dr Varun Rai, a consultant in the ENT department, who did sinus surgery and debriment of mucor from the nasal area.
“It was a complicated case. Time was of the essence, in this case, to save the patient as other organs could have been infected. The kidney had become non-functional,” according to urologist Dr Gupta.“The fungus was found to have almost spread to the liver and the large intestine. With great difficulty, the infected kidney could be removed without injuring the adjacent organs.” Dr Parakh said the patient is recovering well and would be on oral anti-fungal medicine for a few more weeks.