Chennai: A lung harvested from a 21-year-old man, declared brain dead following a road accident in Hyderabad, has saved the life of businessman from Andhra Pradesh at a corporate hospital here on Sunday.
The organ was airlifted by a commercial flight for the first time and it reached the hospital in about three hours’ time.
The recipient, who was also engaged in agriculture activity, was suffering from a lung disease arising due to chronic smoking or pollution.
“There was no oxygenation of lungs in this patient from Vijayawada and the only option was to transplant his right lung,” said Dr Govini Balasubramani, Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgeon at Global Hospitals, where the transplantation was performed in about six hours.
Luckily for the patient, Dr Govini who had gone to Hyderabad to harvest the lung, had arranged a team of doctors to ready the recipient to facilitate the transplant.
“When the lung reached our hospital at 7.20 am our team had opened his chest and was ready to perform the procedure. This made us perform the transplantation quickly,” he said.
Apart from him, two surgeons, four anesthesiologists, three pulmonologists and eight specially trained nurses were involved in the operation.
The lung was harvested from a matching donor at Global Hospitals, Hyderabad, and airlifted through a commercial flight from the airport there at 3.50 am.
Normally, inter-state transportation of cadaver organs are done through chartered flights and only this time a commercial flight was used to reduce the expenses of transportation. The condition of the patient is stable and he is said to be recovering well.
