Young woman with coronavirus receives double lung transplant in Chicago

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-woman-double-lung-transplant-chicago/

June 12, 2020 / 7:33 AM / CBS/AP

Surgeons in Chicago have given a new set of lungs to a young woman with severe lung damage from the coronavirus. Northwestern Medicine on Thursday announced the procedure, which took place last Friday.

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The Chicago patient is in her 20s and was on a ventilator and heart-lung machine for almost two months before her operation. The 10-hour procedure was challenging because the virus had left her lungs full of holes and almost fused to the chest wall, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, who performed the operation.

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She was otherwise pretty healthy but her condition rapidly deteriorated after she was hospitalized in late April. Doctors waited six weeks for her body to clear the virus before considering a transplant.

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The Chicago patient was in bad shape, with signs that her heart, kidneys and liver were beginning to fail, so she quickly moved up in line, Bharat said.

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