Breaking Boundaries: Lung Transplant on 78-Year-Old Patient | with Severe ARDS

When a 78 year old gentleman was brought to MGM Healthcare with ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome), he had been on ECMO for over 50 days.

He had earlier been admitted in a hospital in Bengaluru, having unexpectedly aspirated on his food, with some food particles lodged in his lung. While a lung transplant is recommended under such circumstances, it was not common for such procedures to be carried out on a patient who was on ECMO for over two months.

Yet, the patient was not only wide awake, but mentally active, which prompted the family members and the experts to proceed further for the lung transplant. the experts at The Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support performed the lung transplant with the lung harvested from a 25 year old brain dead patient.

The successful transplant was Asia’s first, in being performed on a patient of such advanced age. Seen here is the patient with his family and Dr. Suresh Rao K. G., Co-Director The Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support.

Kudos to Dr. K. R. Balakrishnan, Director, The Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, Dr. Suresh Rao K. G., Co-Director and Dr. Apar Jindal, Clinical Director & Consultant, Department of Lung Transplant & Interventional Pulmonology / Respiratory Medicine on this exceptional endeavour.