According to the hospital, the recipient had a congenital problem that led to end-stage lung and heart disease.
A 48-year-old policeman became on Thursday the first patient in Maharashtra to get both heart and lung transplants, after a 37-year-old brain-dead patient's family agreed to donate his organs. The Andheri resident had registered for both heart and lung transplants just a month ago.
"We had a brain-dead patient on Wednesday night. He had suffered brain haemorrhage. The patient's family agreed to donate his heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and corneas. Fortunately, both his lungs and heart were fit for transplant," said Dr S Narayani, zonal director, Fortis hospital.
According to the hospital, the recipient had a congenital problem that led to end-stage lung and heart disease. "He had a congenital heart defect, which was not detected in time, and his condition deteriorated. He was wait listed for organ transplant for over a month," said Dr Hasmukh Rawat, senior interventional cardiologist and HOD, Cardiology.
He said while finding a perfect match for both organs was an uphill task, the recipient was managed by dexterous medical management. "He was home bound for the last few years because of his disease. He used to get breathless and was hospitalised repeatedly," said Rawat.
While the cop received the heart and a lung, a kidney and liver were transplanted into three patients, the second Kidney was harvested by another city hospital, and the corneas were sent to the eye bank.
So far, for a patient requiring heart-lung transplant, hospitals in South India are the only hope. Last year in July, Rahul Thakur (21) from Maharahstra got the heart-lung transplant surgery done in Chennai's Fortis Malar hospital. He, however, died after eight months of transplant.
Doctors say that getting a donor for a heart-lung transplant is difficult. Depending on when the person got registered for the organs, a patient needing both heart and lung transplant can survive for maximum a year without the transplant.
Dr Sanjeev Jadhav, heart transplant surgeon at Fortis hospital, said, "The mortality and morbidity associated with heart and lung transplant is more than that of heart transplant alone. Apart from it being a complex surgery, the technicalities are also different. Not all donors can donate heart and lung. The specification and criteria are very stringent."
When is a heart-lung transplant needed
A heart-lung transplant is the only treatment available for a patient who has end-stage heart and lung diseases, and all other treatment options have failed. The world's first successful combined heart-lung transplant was performed at Stanford hospital in California in 1981.
Conditions that most often require a heart-lung transplant are:
1. Congenital heart disease: Birth defects of the heart that impact lungs
2. Pulmonary hypertension: Wherein high blood pressure develops inside the blood vessels of the lungs, which can damage both lungs and heart
Occasionally, a heart-lung transplant may be used to treat cystic fibrosis, a condition where lungs and digestive system become clogged up with sticky mucus.
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