A life-saving lung transplant was performed on a 41-year-old man with severely damaged lungs due to a coronavirus infection at the National Oncology Institute.

The institute reported on the transplant in May and sent it to MTI, stating that a 41-year-old man was admitted to the intensive care unit of the National Institute of Early Pulmonology in March of this year with confirmed coronavirus infection and in a life-threatening condition.
In addition to full-scale conservative therapeutic treatment, his condition continued to deteriorate, mechanical ventilation became necessary, and then - since it was not possible to ensure satisfactory oxygenation even with a ventilator - artificial lung treatment was started.

During the long-term treatment, it became clear that the patient's lungs are not capable of regeneration, and his life can only be saved by a lung transplant. The patient's other organs were in satisfactory condition. The man, whose PCR test was already negative at the time, was placed on the lung transplant waiting list.

The life-saving lung transplant was performed at the National Oncology Institute on May 9, after 40 days of artificial lung treatment. They wrote that the lobes, which were severely damaged due to the coronavirus infection, were "replaced with healthy lungs during the bravura operation".

As expected, the patient's recovery and rehabilitation in the intensive care units of the National Institute of Oncology and then the National Institute of Early Pulmonology took a long time, and the man was discharged home 85 days after the lung transplant, at the beginning of August. His further care is carried out by the Semmelweis University Pulmonology Clinic in accordance with the transplant protocol, they said.

Ferenc Rényi-Vámos, who performed the operation, director of the Thoracic Surgery Clinic of Semmelweis University (pictured, MTI) and also head of the Chest Center of the National Oncology Institute, told MTI: it is a great thing that this intervention could be performed in Hungary, but elsewhere in the region this is only possible in Austria and Slovenia.

Source: sándár.hu