Chennai: MGM Healthcare has announced that it has performed a successful bilateral lung transplant on Jharkhand Education Minister Jagarnath Mahto, after testing positive for corona virus.

The transplant was necessitated due to severe lung infection caused by Covid-19 and it was performed by Dr K R Balakrishnan, chairman and director of Cardiac Sciences and director of the Heart and Lung Transplant Program and his team.

The 54-year old Minister, in addition to being infected by the corona, was also suffering from hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease, which made it a very challenging case.

Fibrosis caused by the corona virus infection severely damaged his lungs and he had been treated with drugs like remdesvir and other steroids.
Gradually his conditions worsened, and his oxygen saturation was particularly low.

The clinical team at MGM assessed him and his clinical status started deteriorated, he was put on Veno venous ECMO on 19 October, 2020 and airlifted him to the hospital here for advanced clinical care.

He was tracheostomized on 28 October and when his CT scan did not show any improvement in the lungs, he was enlisted under the lung transplant program.

After 23 days on ECMO he underwent a bilateral lung transplant on 10 November, 2020. The Minister has since recovered and was getting discharged from the hospital.