A 31-year-old man who had contracted COVID in March, has successfully undergone a lung transplant surgery by a team of 15 doctors at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket in Delhi, reported the news agency PTI.

In a statement, the hospital said that this was the ‘first’ such transplant performed on a post-COVID patient in north India.

The organ was transported from the city airport in a green corridor. The statement read, "In these difficult times, the harvested lungs were flown down to Delhi by an Air India flight in clockwork precision. A green corridor had already been created between the private hospital and the airport at Jaipur, and then between the IGI International Airport and Max Super Speciality Hospital at Saket in Delhi. An ambulance waiting at the airport speedily transported the donor lungs through an 18.3 km stretch in a matter of just 18 minutes.”

The patient had been suffering from advanced interstitial lung disease. He had been having breathing difficulty for the last one year and was diagnosed with lung silicosis.

The hospital claimed that it was "for the first time in north India that doctors at the Max Super Speciality Hospital, performed a life-saving lung transplant surgery on the patient "who had developed COVID lung fibrosis (a condition that arises due to severe lung injury in COVID-19 patients causing irreversible lung dysfunction), late on November 28".

The team was led by Rahul Chandola, Associate Director, Adult CTVS, Heart & Lung Transplant Specialist, at the hospital.

According to a report by The Indian Express, “The patient had very poor lung function… and a poor right heart function,” said Dr Rahul Chandola, adding, “Among all the solid organ transplants, lungs are the most fragile. Since most donors are road traffic accident victims, the trauma triggers vomiting in some donors, that can go to the lungs and damage the donor lungs, rendering them unsuitable for transplants. Lungs are also in contact with the environment as opposed to other solid organs, which makes them prone to easy infections.”

(With inputs from PTI)