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Oct 11, 2020

Doctors in Nashville perform world’s first dual heart and lung transplant on COVID-19 patient

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Great news! 🙏


Shah said the patient’s battle with COVID-19 seriously damaged his lungs and may have also further damaged his heart. By September, the patient was critically ill with advanced heart and lung disease. He was referred to VUMC from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“He was slipping fast, in and out of the hospital and certainly by the time we operated on him, his heart was really done,” Shah said.

Bacchetta and Shah performed the transplant using both lungs and the heart from the same donor, which the hospital says is standard in dual transplants. VUMC says the organs were from a donor who had hepatitis C, and that the hospital is one of the first centers to use such organs for patients awaiting heart and lung transplants.

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