A 62-year-old resident of Tamil Nadu diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) and a 40-year-old from Jharkhand with congenital heart disease got a new lease of life thanks to the joint efforts of a team of doctors from Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The doctors from Aster Hospitals in Bengaluru and KIMS Hospitals in Hyderabad conducted the bilateral lung transplant and combined heart and lung transplant procedures to save the life of these patients.
Explaining the challenges involved in both the cases, Sandeep Attawar, Chair and Director of Thoracic Organ Transplants and Assist Devices at KIMS Heart and Lung Transplant Institute, said both the patients were listed for transplant at Aster CMI Hospital in September 2020 and were transplanted in December 2020 once the matching organs were available.
“These patients had to wait a bit longer for the organs due to the pandemic. Both the surgeries were successful and the patients are now discharged from the hospital and slowly getting back to normal life,” he said.
Pawan Kumar Singh, the patient from Jharkhand, had a history of congenital heart disease with significant structural defects. He had developed severe pulmonary hypertension which had made him oxygen dependent. His surgery lasted for close to six hours and within a week post his procedure, he was put on minimum oxygen support and was started on oral feeds.
Pavan Yadav, Consultant Interventional Pulmonology, Sleep Medicine and Lung transplantation at Aster Hospitals said that Margabandhu, the patient from Tamil Nadu, had ILD and despite optimal medical management his fibrosis continued to progress. He became oxygen dependent and was hardly able to perform any physical activity.
The patient was registered under the cadaveric program and underwent bilateral lung transplantation. His surgery also lasted for close to six hours and he was discharged from the hospital after two weeks.
