Chennai man spends 109 days on life support, recovers without lung transplant

In what can be called a miracle, a Chennai man who had contracted COVID-19 spent nearly four months on life support machines and recovered without a lung transplant.

Rela multi-specialty hospital that treated the 56-year-old man made the claim on Thursday that this man recovered after staying for over 9 weeks with ECMO and ventilator support. 

As per reports, the man named Mudijja was tested COVID-19 positive in April and was admitted to the hospital with moderate pneumonia and oxygen level at 92%.

However, in the coming days, his condition deteriorated and he required 10 litres of oxygen per minute. He was then put on ECMO support but initially, there was not much progress in his health.

Though ECMO is traditionally used as an intermittent arrangement until lung transplantation, doctors here made it a life-saving procedure.

"Mr Mudijja is the only patient in the country to recover without lung transplant after being hooked up to an artificial lung ECMO for over 60 days," said Dr C Arumugam, a heart and lung transplant surgeon at the hospital.

The patient was put on ECMO in the first week of June and underwent tracheostomy in the second week of June to stabilise his health condition, the doctors said. 

The condition of the patient started improving after being put on ECMO for almost 50 days when his lungs started performing better. It was then that the doctors decided to proceed with the treatment plan with no transplant.

His lungs were severely damaged and he suffered from numerous other health issues after contracting COVID-19. The patient even suffered from cardiac arrest during this period.

The health issues of the patient varied from ENT bleeding, disseminated intravascular coagulation and episodes of seizure. The patient was discharged recently.