India’s First Adult Lung Transplant Turns a Rare Donor Match into a Life-Saving Success
For more than three decades, a woman from West Bengal has been struggling to breathe. All due to a serious condition known as rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease. The condition has slowly scarred her lungs. But today, she is walking around without any oxygen support. All thanks to the experts and doctors at Gleneagles Hospitals in Chennai who gave her a life-saving lung transplant. The procedure is being described by the hospital as India’s first adult lung transplant using lungs from a 13-year-old donor.
The woman, a homemaker from Kolkata, had been living with rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease for nearly six years. Although she received treatment, the disease continued to progress. Her lungs became badly scarred, making it harder to breathe with each passing month.
At first, she needed just one litre of oxygen per minute. Over time, that number increased to eight litres per minute. Even simple tasks became difficult. She was bedridden and depended on her family for almost everything.
Doctors at Gleneagles Hospitals knew that a lung transplant offered the best chance of survival. But there was one major challenge. The patient was small in stature, so adult donor lungs would have been too large for her chest. Finding a donor with lungs of the right size was critical.
That opportunity came when lungs from a 13-year-old deceased donor became available. According to Dr. Govini Balasubramani, Director of Heart and Lung Transplant at Gleneagles Hospitals, the size match made the transplant possible. He and his team successfully performed the surgery 26 days before the hospital shared the outcome.
The patient’s recovery has surprised even her doctors. She was taken off oxygen support on the third day after surgery and discharged from the hospital just 12 days later.
“The patient, who had earlier been bedridden and needed assistance for everything, is now able to walk around her house without support,” said Dr. Balasubramani.
The case highlights how important donor matching is in lung transplantation. Unlike many other organ transplants, lungs must match not only blood type but also body size and chest capacity. A poor size match can make the transplant difficult or even impossible. For smaller adults, finding suitable donor lungs can take much longer.
Dr. Biswarup Pal, Head of Medical Services at Gleneagles Hospitals Chennai, said the success of the surgery also reflects the strength of Tamil Nadu’s organ transplant programme. He thanked the donor’s family for making the difficult decision to donate their loved one’s organs during a time of personal loss.
He added that the transplant was made possible through close teamwork involving transplant surgeons, pulmonologists, intensive care specialists, nurses and transplant coordinators.
R.Y. Bharath Kanth Reddy, Chief Executive Officer of the Chennai and Hyderabad Cluster at Gleneagles Hospitals, said this is India’s first adult lung transplant performed using lungs from a 13-year-old donor. The hospital believes the procedure marks an important step forward in the country’s transplant programme.
Rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease is one of the most serious complications of rheumatoid arthritis. While rheumatoid arthritis is mainly known for causing pain and swelling in the joints, it can also damage the lungs. In some patients, inflammation leads to permanent scarring, reducing the lungs’ ability to carry oxygen into the bloodstream. Medicines can slow the disease, but advanced cases may require lung transplantation when breathing becomes severely affected.
This case is also a reminder of the life-changing impact of organ donation. One family’s decision to donate during a time of grief has given another person a chance to breathe freely again. For the woman from West Bengal, it is not just a successful surgery. It is the beginning of a new chapter after years of living with a disease that slowly took away her breath.
