World’s first lung transplant in recovered covid patient

Its world’s first lung transplant from living donors to a recovered coronavirus patient doctors claimed and the case if of a Japanese woman whose lungs were severely damaged by Covid-19.

She received what doctors say is the world’s first lung transplant from living donors to a recovered coronavirus patient.

Kyoto University Hospital said the woman underwent an 11-hour operation by a 30-member medical team to transplant lung tissue from her husband and son.

According to medical reports people around the world have received lung transplants as part of their recovery from the covid.

But the Kyoto hospital said this case was the first in which lung tissue had been transplanted from living donors to a Covid-19 patient.

Dr Hiroshi Date, a thoracic surgeon at the hospital who led the operation, said it gave hope to patients suffering from severe lung damage from Covid-19.

“We demonstrated that we now have an option of lung transplants (from living donors),” he said at a media briefing.

The patient, a native of Japan’s western region of Kansai, was infected late last year, and spent months on a life support machine that worked as an artificial lung, according to Kyoto University Hospital.

Covid-19 caused so much damage to her lungs they were no longer functional, and she required a lung transplant to live, said doctors.

The woman’s husband and son offered to donate parts of their lungs. Transplants from brain-dead donors are still rare in Japan, and live donors are considered a better option, according to the hospital’s statement.

The husband and son are in a stable condition and the woman remains in intensive care.