A patient hospitalized at the Lille University Hospital, who had spent several weeks in a coma, received a lung transplant at the Foch hospital in Suresnes.

The thoracic surgeon in charge of the lung transplant program reconsiders this "very heavy" operation.

This is a first in France: a lung transplant was performed on a patient whose lungs had been almost destroyed by the coronavirus.

The operation was carried out on Sunday, November 1 at the Foch hospital in Suresnes, while the patient had been hospitalized at the Lille University Hospital.

This patient spent several weeks in a coma, on respiratory ventilation.

No comorbidities

The Lille doctors then tried extracorporeal oxygenation of his blood but nothing helped: his condition deteriorated over the weeks.

The only solution to save him was therefore a lung transplant.

Since he had no comorbidities, the operation was possible.

>> LIVE - 

Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Friday, November 13

As Professor Édouard Sage, thoracic surgeon at Foch Hospital in Suresnes, assures us, the patient is doing very well, twelve days after the operation: "We expected that it could be more difficult than that, but its two lungs function perfectly and this is a first victory ", congratulates the person in charge of the lung transplant program on Europe 1.

Several months of recovery?

"The second victory is that we are faced with a patient who has had many weeks of resuscitation before, so he has all the consequences of this treatment too, to which we add an extremely heavy intervention", continues the Prof. Édouard Sage.

"He is fine, but we have to be very careful because he will need a lot of recovery, several weeks or even months of hospitalization, before he recovers."

CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS

> Covid vaccine: what are the remaining obstacles to overcome?

> Covid: should we be concerned if the headaches persist after recovery?

> Education: the first confinement lowered the level of students and widened inequalities

> When are we in contact?

And other questions that we ask ourselves every day

> Coronavirus: the 5 mistakes not to make with your mask

If such an operation is a first in France, there have already been similar transplants on at least one patient in the United States and another in China.

This type of operation remains exceptional, insists the surgeon.

But according to him, it constitutes an additional weapon, and therefore a source of hope for patients who have very serious forms of Covid-19.