A critically ill COVID-19 patient just got a double lung transplant
The successful transplantation of a donor’s lungs to a severely ill COVID-19 patient may offer others with irreversibly damaged lungs a means of survival. A young woman whose lungs were inflamed and scarred beyond repair because of COVID-19 has received a double lung transplant, doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago said in a news briefing June 11. It’s believed to be the first time this procedure has been used for a coronavirus patient in the United States. Similar transplants have been reported in Austria and China. “If she didn’t get the transplant, she would not be alive,” said Ankit Bharat, a thoracic surgeon at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine who headed the transplant team. It’s not clear yet how many patients whose lungs are destroyed by the coronavirus could benefit from this approach, he said. Sign up for e-mail updates on the latest coronavirus news and research The Northwestern patient, a Hispanic woman in her 20s, had no health problems before her...