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A portrait is circulating online, showing on one side a perfectly healthy lung and on the other that of a patient who would have been infected with the coronavirus. The latter, completely unrecognizable, is in a very degraded state. A photo that intrigued Internet users, who wondered if it was indeed an organ affected by Covid-19.
Some wonder if this is a false trail, while others think that the condition of this lung could be due to other factors, such as heavy smoking. However, research has verified the veracity of this cliché. The story of the patient who had this lung removed was indeed reported a few weeks ago by the New York Times.
A transplant as the only hope
On June 11, the American daily reported that a patient with Covid-19 saw her lungs very seriously damaged, which put her in danger of death. To rescue her, doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago decided to proceed with a lung transplant, “the first known in the United States”, as part of the epidemic, the newspaper said.
“The surgery, which lasted ten hours, was difficult and took several hours longer than most lung transplants because the inflammation from the disease had left this woman’s lungs plastered in the tissues around them, “The heart, chest wall and diaphragm,” replied Dr Ankit Bharat, the hospital’s head of thoracic surgery.
The patient, barely 30 years old, endured the harsh operation, although later on she had to keep the aid of a ventilator to allow her to recover. She had no underlying pathology, doctors pointed out, suggesting that Covid-19 was the cause of the degradation of her lungs. They noted, however, that she was taking medication for a minor problem, and that this may have helped lower her immune system.
