Chicago hospital surgeons perform one of the first double lung transplants in a COVID patient using organs from a donor who previously tested positive for the virus
- The patient, an Illinois health worker in his 60s, tested positive for COVID-19 in May 2020
- He became so ill that he was put on life support and transferred to Northwestern Medicine in February, where he was included on the lung transplant list.
- Within a week, he was found with a donor who had recovered from the virus before he died due to an unrelated cause
- The surgeons performed a lung biopsy on the donor’s organs and tested the lung fluid to ensure that the donor had completely eliminated the virus.
- The surgery was successful and is believed to be among the world’s first ‘Covid to Covid’ lung transplants
A Chicago hospital says doctors have successfully performed one of the first double lung transplants in a COVID-19 patient using the organs of a donor who has recovered from the disease.
Northwestern Medicine surgeons said the recipient was diagnosed with coronavirus last year and eventually became so ill that he was on life support and in dire need of a transplant.
The lungs came from a donor who had previously tested positive for the virus, but only had mild symptoms – and recovered – before dying from an unrelated cause.
Doctors previously stated that risky surgeries can become a standard procedure for COVID-19 patients who are on the verge of death.
An Illinois man in his 60s became so ill from COVID-19 that he was placed on life support and transferred to Northwestern Medicine in February, where he was included on the lung transplant list (left). Within a week, he was found with a donor who had recovered from the virus before he died due to an unrelated cause (right)
The surgeons performed a lung biopsy on the donor’s organs and tested the lung fluid to make sure that the donor had completely eliminated the virus. In the photo: a team of surgeons from Northwestern Medicine
“This is a milestone for lung transplantation,” said Dr. Ankit Bharat, Northwestern’s associate professor of surgery who performed the transplant, in a press release.
‘To date, 30 million Americans have had COVID-19 and many of them are registered organ donors.
‘If we say’ no ‘to them just because they had COVID-19 in the past, we will drastically reduce the donor pool and there is already a huge supply and demand gap.’
The patient, an Illinois man in his 60s who works in healthcare, contracted the coronavirus for the first time in May 2020.
He ended up getting so sick that he was put in a Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO).
It pumps and oxygenates the patient’s blood outside the body, which allows the heart and lungs to rest.
In February 2021, he was transferred to Northwestern Medicine, where he was included in the list of transplants.
Lung transplants are much more difficult for patients with COVID-19 because of the severity of the damage the virus does to organs.
In addition, doctors need to wait for the virus to cleanse the body, but ensure that the patient’s organs do not fail.
In a national classification system out of 100, which tracks the situation of transplant patients, patients with COVID-19 are usually between 80 and 90.
Within a week, the patient found a donor, who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past, but had mild symptoms.
He or she recovered from the disease before dying from an unknown cause. Since his lungs were not damaged by the virus, he made the organs usable for transplant.
However, there are risks associated with using the lungs of a donor who has had the disease.
Last fall, a Michigan woman contracted a serious case of COVID-19 from the new set of lungs she received from a double lung transplant. Two months later, she died.
To make sure this wouldn’t happen to the patient, the Northwestern team tested the donor’s lung fluid to make sure it had eliminated the virus and performed a lung biopsy.
“If the smear and lung fluid return free of the virus and the lung biopsy confirms that there is no permanent damage to the lungs, we can feel confident in the quality of the donated lungs,” said Bharat.
“Our first” COVID to COVID “patient received beautiful, healthy lungs and continues to recover at an ideal rate.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Northwestern Medicine estimates that it has performed 14 double lung transplants on survivors of COVID-19, which it claims to be the majority in the United States.
