This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
Published on June 11, 2020, a groundbreaking medical procedure took place in Chicago, marking a significant milestone in the fight against Covid-19.
A team of skilled surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital performed a double-lung transplant on a young Hispanic woman in her twenties, who had been battling the virus for months.
The patient, who had spent six weeks on a life support machine in the intensive care unit, had suffered extensive lung damage due to the coronavirus.
According to Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of the Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program, "A lung transplant was her only chance for survival."
The procedure, which was deemed "technically challenging," was performed safely, offering the terminally ill Covid-19 patients another option for survival.
This historic operation is believed to be the first of its kind in the US, following a similar procedure performed in China in March.
