with a resident doctor Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical (rmlims), she was battling for life for more than two months before the UP government sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore for the life-saving surgery. She reached Hyderabad after a 2-hour flight from Lucknow, through lush green corridors in both the cities for quick, seamless movement.
Late on Saturday evening, a four-member team from KIMS, Hyderabad reached Lucknow and examined the patient around midnight for pre-transplant evaluation. Since temporary shutdown of the Advanced Life Support System (ECMO) could prove fatal, his condition was reviewed again in the morning. The KIMS medical team then took him to their ECMO facility and after monitoring his stability for several hours, the journey to Hyderabad began. Professor PK Das, head of the Department of Anesthesia, RMLIMS, who has been taking care of the resident doctor since May 1, said, “Dr Suman arrived safely and is in KIMS ICU.”
It was an emotional farewell for Dr Suman with crying colleagues and RMLIMS faculty members praying for her safe journey. Green corridors were opened from RMLIMS to Amausi airport and from Hyderabad airport to KIMS to remove traffic bottlenecks. She was on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) throughout the trip. An ECMO is used to pump and oxygenate the patient’s blood out of the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.
Starting at 11 am from RMLIMS, it took 30 minutes to reach Amausi airport before traveling two hours to Hyderabad by air ambulance. Her husband Dr Ajay Kumar and Dr PK Das accompanied her to the Lucknow airport.
“The lung transplant procedure at KIMS will take time as it needs to be stabilized and treated for any conditions that may develop during flight. Subsequently, a matching cadaveric donor with a compatible blood group and size will be found. Specialists will specifically match the human leukocytes antigen (HLA) of the patient and the cadaver organ. HLAs are proteins in the immune system and play an important role in accepting or rejecting the organ,” Dr Das explained.
Dr Suman, a postgraduate resident in the gynecology department of RMLIMS, was eight months pregnant when she contracted Covid-19 on April 14 while on duty in a non-Covid emergency ward. he was admitted to the hospital covid Ward and when her condition worsened, she was put on a ventilator and underwent C-section surgery to save her baby. The baby is fine, doctors told TOI.
But Dr Suman kept drowning and was later put on ECMO and a team of experts recommended a lung transplant on July 1.
As the family could not afford the procedure, the patient’s husband along with RMLIMS Director Prof Sonia Nityanand, Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Rajan Bhatnagar and Medical Superintendent Dr Vikram Singh met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who on July 6 asked for a 1.5-day surgery. Approved Rs. Nityanand Thanks again to the CM for this gesture on Sunday.
Head Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Prof Ved Prakash said, the biggest risk in a lung transplant is the rejection of the organ by the patient’s immune system. Therefore, patients are given lifelong immunosuppressant drugs, which can make them vulnerable to side effects. However, with modern medicines there is a 50% chance of survival for five years. Even after the transplant, Dr Suman may need to be in the bio bubble to avoid infection.”
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