Russian Boy, 4, Undergoes Complex Bilateral Lung Transplant In Tamil Nadu

A four-year-old boy from Russia, on ventilator for three years, has successfully undergone a complex bilateral lung transplant, the hospital which treated him said on Wednesday.

He is the youngest to successfully undergo the lung transplant in India and one of the youngest in Asia, city-based MGM Healthcare claimed.

The boy was diagnosed with fibrosing alveolitis at the tender age of two months and was put on a ventilator as his oxygen saturation was extremely low.

"He underwent tracheostomy when he was six months old in Russia and was airlifted to our unit in Chennai in 2018 for further management and a possible lung transplant referred by the doctors in Russia," said Dr K R Balakrishnan, chairman & director of Cardiac Sciences and Director of the Heart and Lung Transplant Programme, MGM Healthcare.

The child was on a ventilator for three years as efforts were on to find a suitable donor organ for him, Dr Suresh Rao K G, Co-Director of Heart and Lung Transplantation Programme & Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare, said.

A release from the hospital quoting him said a two year old brain dead donor became available in December 2020 in Surat, Gujarat, and the organ was airlifted to Chennai.

After the procedure then, the child was kept under observation in ICU care.

The boy is currently off the ventilator and on minimal oxygen support. He is recovering well and undergoing physiotherapy and rehabilitation. He will be able to lead a normal life in the future, the hospital said.

"Interestingly, the nurses have learnt to speak a few words of Russian and the boy understands common words in Tamil," Dr Balakrishnan claimed.

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