The world’s first living donor lung transplant took place at Kyoto University Hospital. It was performed on a patient who lost functionality of both her lungs due to COVID-19 infection and two healthy family members who gave her parts of their lungs.
The medical breakthrough is a beacon of hope for all the people on waiting lists for donor’s lungs, which until now had to come from a brain-dead donor. Patients on such a list in Japan have to wait a long as two and a half years because there are very few donors.
The operation took about eleven hours to perform. The surgeons transplanted part of the healthy lungs from the patient’s son and husband to replace her failing lungs. All three of the people involved are currently in stable condition in intensive care. They will be discharged in two months if all goes well.
The patient’s son and husband offered to donate part of their lungs after the hospital determined that she had no hope of recovery unless she received a lung transplant. Since the waiting list was so long, this was probably the only way to save her life. The donors acknowledged the risk of decreased lung capacity on their part and went along with the plan.
The patient, who resides in western Japan, contracted COVID-19 late last year. She didn’t have any pre-existing medical conditions but ended up spending months on a life support machine acting as artificial lungs. Her respiratory function had rapidly deteriorated after she was infected with the coronavirus and her lungs were no longer functional. Both her lungs hardened and shrunk from pneumonia.
Thoracic surgeon Dr. Hiroshi Date led the operation. He told Kyodo News that the success of this operation could provide optimism among others suffering severe lung damage caused by the virus. He said:
I think there is a lot of hope for this treatment in the sense that it creates a new option.
The woman’s husband and son are incredibly grateful and have expressed joy over the successful lung transplant.
