Woman receives double lung transplant after COVID-19 complications

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I would give it a Like ( well, I gave it an Informative ), but it is not pretty.
Worse than ever.
Good for her.
 
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Can anyone here give any general information on how does such a double lung transplant operation go ahead?
I mean in order to get to the lungs one has to remove quite some ribs etc structures don't they ?
And how would then administer oxygen and take away CO2 from the bloostream while doing this? Do they recirculate the blood directly out from blood vessels through some manual filter element somewhat similarly to patients with failing kidneys undergoing dialysis?
 
Horrific. Poor woman
 
Tom.G said:
A good reason to avoid COVID-19!

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lung-from-covid-19-patient/
Funny that you used a Snopes.com link as the reference. Fortunately they marked it as "True". :wink:

That's an ugly lung. I would have guessed that it was from a life-long smoker, but apparently the patient was not a smoker. Interesting also how the virus' damage complicated the surgery...

The 10-hour surgery was more difficult and took several hours longer than most lung transplants because inflammation from the disease had left the woman’s lungs “completely plastered to tissue around them, the heart, the chest wall and diaphragm,” said Dr. Ankit Bharat, the chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of the lung transplant program at Northwestern Medicine, which includes Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in an interview.
 
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berkeman said:
Funny that you used a Snopes.com link as the reference. Fortunately they marked it as "True". :wink:

That's an ugly lung. I would have guessed that it was from a life-long smoker, but apparently the patient was not a smoker. Interesting also how the virus' damage complicated the surgery...
Is there anything from your side on this in terms of case studies /lancet/BMA?
 
The story is true as I found multiple sources including videos with the hospital spokespersons talking about it.
@berkeman well I would imagine that a lifelong smoker's lungs don't look this bad simply by the fact that I don't know any lifelong smoker who needs a oxygen supply apparatus to keep them alive.
Of all the smokers that I know that have died they all usually die from related problems like heart failure, high blood pressure and vessel rupture etc , cancer etc.
 
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artis said:
The story is true as I found multiple sources including videos with the hospital spokespersons talking about it.
@berkeman well I would imagine that a lifelong smoker's lungs don't look this bad simply by the fact that I don't know any lifelong smoker who needs a oxygen supply apparatus to keep them alive.
Of all the smokers that I know that have died they all usually die from related problems like heart failure, high blood pressure and vessel rupture etc , cancer etc.
There were reports out of China early doors that survivors were experiencing reduced lung function come to think of it.

This recently from the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53065340
 
Well I'm no expert so someone else is welcome to share a more informed view but I would imagine that if someone got a severe case of pneumonia from the regular flu he/she would also have some long lasting lung damage.
As far as I understand it's just that with Covid the people who fall so sick they reach this severe pneumonia condition is bit larger than the annual flu because Covid is also spread more easily so covers a much larger population size?