Chennai, Aug. 6 -- Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, has successfully performed a life-saving bilateral lung transplant on a 41-year-old woman after supporting her on an artificial lung (VV-ECMO) for 119 consecutive days, one of the longest reported successfulVV-ECMO bridges to lung transplantation using a single oxygenator without circuit exchange.
The patient suffered irreversible lung damage after accidentally ingesting less than 50ml of Paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide that rapidly causes progressive organ failure, with kidneys and lungs being the most susceptible. Her lungs continued to deteriorate such that even mechanical ventilation was inadequate and had to be rescued on artificial circulatory support.
She was then airlifted to the He...