Rare double lung transplant saves 23-year-old patient

A 23-year-old man from Mahabubabad who tried to kill himself by drinking a potent herbicide was saved by doctors who performed a rare double lung transplant.

“The patient imbibed paraquat (paraquat dichloride), and usually we tell caretakers of such patients to take them home as the prognosis is grim. But this was a young man. While his kidneys and liver recovered, the lungs suffered irreversible pulmonary fibrosis,” said Hari Kishan Gonuguntla, interventional pulmonologist at Yashoda Hospitals, who led the team that carried out the double lung transplant to save the patient.  

The patient received the donor lungs from a cadaveric brain-dead donor from the State-run Jeevandan Cadaver Transplantation Programme. 

“When the patient was brought to us, he was placed on mechanical ventilator and thereafter on extra corporal support (ECMO). Lung transplant for the above condition was only done in few centres,” said Pavan Gorukanti of Yashoda Hospitals. 

“This case was unique as there is limitation in the test availability to know the residual amount of the toxic chemical remaining in the body before transplant. He was on ECMO for nearly a month and had multiple blood stream and respiratory infections before transplant,” said Gonuguntla. 

Like all transplant patients he will have to take immuno-suppressant drugs for lifetime. A hospital official pegged the cost of the surgery at ₹50 lakhs which was mobilised through social media and crowd funding.