First lung transplant in Spain on a patient due to Covid damage

FIRST lung transplant in Spain on a patient due to Covid damage. The Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona has carried out the first lung transplant in the country to a patient with had contracted covid-19 to whom the coronavirus inflammation had caused irreversible damage to these organs.

The 51-year-old man with no previous pathologies was infected at the end of January, in the third wave, and was admitted to the ICU for 127 days, 122 of them connected to an extracorporeal oxygenation device (ECMO), a machine that performs the functions of the lungs. After four months connected to the machine, his lungs did not respond and the Bellvitge Hospital, where he was admitted, requested an assessment from the Vall d’Hebron Lung Transplantation Committee, the reference centre.

As reported by 20 Minutos, the patient has since left the ICU and no longer needs breathing support. Jordi Soriano, the transplant patient, explained this Friday, July 16, that when he entered the hospital “I was connected to a machine with which I have been for almost four months.” After being operated on, “after 24 days they took it away from me.” This has been a five-month journey, Soriano has explained.

Meanwhile, the virus incidence rate is trending upwards across Spain. The Ministry of Health notified this Thursday, July 15, 27,688 new infections and 41 deaths, which raises the global figure since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,069,162 infected and 81,084 deaths. The incidence rate continues to rise and has already reached 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in recent days for the first time since February, after rising 31 points compared to Wednesday, July 14.