BENGALURU: In a first for Karnataka, a 30-year-old doctor underwent a post-Covid double lung transplant at a private hospital. The anesthetist, Dr Sanath Kumar, had been working through the Covid-19 pandemic in another private hospital in Bengaluru, treating critically-ill corona patients in the ICU, when he contracted the virus himself.
It started with fever and cough and on testing positive, he was put on medication. However, his condition worsened over time and he began to feel a pain in his chest and suffered resistant hypoxia -- low oxygen supply at tissue level. His oxygen level decreased significantly to 60 per cent, and he was put on a mechanical ventilator for oxygen support. He was then referred to Aster CMI Hospital.
“When he was referred to us, he was intubated and was on 100 per cent oxygen support, with barely enough oxygen in his bloodstream to survive. Within half an hour of his arrival, we initiated ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) support to help him oxygenate the rest of his body. Despite keeping him on ECMO and resting the lungs, they continued to deteriorate. Long-term ECMO was not feasible, and transplant was the last option. Luckily, he remained stable over the next few weeks while we waited for a suitable donor match. We found a match after four weeks and he underwent a lung transplant,” said Dr V Arun, Lead Consultant, Anaesthesia & Critical Care, Aster CMI Hospital.
A double lung transplant is a gruelling surgery, and the only solution for Dr Sanath, who experienced a life-threatening combination of lung damage caused by the Covid-19 virus, an exaggerated immune response to it, and the body’s failure to properly repair the injury, explained Dr Sandeep Attawar, Chair and Director of thoracic organ transplants and Assist devices at KIMS Heart & Lung Transplant Institute, who collaborated with Aster for the procedure.
“Such patients are intubated, deconditioned, nutritionally inadequate and suffer from airway and blood stream infections during their prolonged hospitalisation,” Dr Attawar added. The patient had not taken the first dose of Covid vaccine when this happened. It took two months for him to be rehabilitated post the transplant. He is back home on oxygen support and getting better, although he is still weak. Rehabilitation involved working on physiotherapy, nutrition, trying to get him on his feet, get his lungs working, weaning him off the ventilator and oxygen support, in addition to overall mental and physical rehabilitation.