A 50-year old South Korean woman has received a double lung transplant after suffering from COVID-19 since February. She also holds the record for the longest time hospitalized with a specialized life-support system for 112 days before her surgery.
For 16 weeks, she was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support meaning that her blood circulated through a machine that adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide to her red blood cells.
She soon developed pulmonary fibrosis or scarred lung tissue. Dr. Park Sung-hoon from the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital shared that the patient's condition worsened as they tried hydroxychloroquine (anti-malaria drugs), Kaletra (HIV/AIDS treatment), and steroids.
[Warning: Graphic Video of Lungs]
Double Lung Transplant for coronavirus patient
The ultimate option had been a double lung transplant. The first person to receive the rare surgery was Ann Harrison in 1986, who received the lungs of an 18-year-old. Ann survived 15 years with her new set of lungs until she died from a brain aneurysm in 2001. Dr. Joel Cooper, her surgeon, shared, "I still marvel when someone so close to death is returned to a vigorous life."
When the coronavirus became a pandemic, doctors looked to lung transplants for severe cases. The first double lung transplant for a COVID-19 patient belonged to a 20-year-old woman at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on June 5.
Dr. Ankit Bharat reported that she was stable and improving every day since her surgery. "If she didn't get the transplant, she would not be alive," he said.
Similar to the South Korean woman, the 20-year-old was on an ECMO machine for two months. Dr. Bharat explained, "She was starting to develop multi-organ failure from the result of the permanent damage that she had. As a result of the severe injury, the pressure inside the lungs started to really go up and the heart then started to fail. And when the heart starts to fail then the blood starts to back up, so the liver starts to fail and then the kidneys start to fail."
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'Grateful That I am Breathing'
ECMO machine treatment is usually given to severe cases of coronavirus with a 90% chance of dying. "The probability of success in lung transplants on ECMO patients is 50%, and fortunately, our patient was well prepared before the surgery when we found the donor," said Dr. Kim Hyoung-soo, the ECMO program director who was also in charge of the woman's surgery.
After eight hours of surgery, the doctors said that the 50-year-old's lungs were so damaged, they were hard as a rock. The mother of two is recovering well, the team reports.
Lee Sun-hee, the head nurse of the ECMO program who also served the patient shared, "She told us, 'I'm grateful for the sunshine, for the moonlight. I'm so grateful that I am breathing.'' As soon as the patient is released from the hospital, she wants "to get a nice bath." The team of medical experts will discharge the patient once her lungs and chest muscles can support themselves.
