For the first time in Israel, a double lung transplant has been completed successfully at Sheba Medical Center on a recovering COVID-19 patient with collapsed lungs. The 54-year-old patient contracted COVID-19 around two months ago, and was soon connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO) after his lungs collapsed as a result of the infection.
The procedure was performed while the patient was awake and connected to an ECMO machine, and a short time after its successful completion he was transferred to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit for further observation.
This was the first time the complicated procedure was performed on a recovering COVID-19 patient suffering from severe pulmonary damage in Israel, and one of only a few similar procedures completed globally.
This latest procedure comes only a few days after another complex lung transplant was completed at Sheba Medical Center as part of the Lung Transplant Program headed by Prof. Ehud Raanani, Director of Sheba’s Leviev Cardiovascular and Thoracic Center, and Dr. Amir Onn, Head of Sheba’s Institute of Pulmonary Oncology.
