KOLKATA: West Bengal on Tuesday witnessed its first lung transplantation after doctors at a private hospital in Kolkata successfully conducted a marathon surgery to give a 60-year-old patient a new lease of life, an official of the medical establishment said.
The operation on the male patient started late on Monday night and took around 11-12 hours for the doctors to complete the process of transplanting the organ which came from a brain dead person in Gujarat.
The recipient, who developed complications following recovery from Covid-19, is on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) support for over three months as both of his lungs were completely damaged, he said.
"The surgery ended this morning and the patient is on ECMO support now. He is under observation of the treating doctors. Whether his condition is stable or not could be ascertained only after a few more hours," the official said.
The organ of a patient from Gujarat's Surat was flown in a special flight to the city at around 9.30 pm on Monday and was rushed to the hospital in the southern part of the city via a green corridor created for the purpose.
"The ECMO support was also not working well for him and he was required to undergo a transplant. We are hopeful that the elderly man will get back a new lease of life," the official said.
A lung transplant is reserved for people who have tried other medications or treatments, but their conditions haven't sufficiently improved.