Jharkhand minister Jagarnath Mahto, who was flown to Chennai on October 19 for better medical attention after developing complications in his respiratory system as a result of Covid-19, has been put on life support system at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Healthcare in the Tamil Nadu capital, doctors treating him there said on Thursday.
The Co-director of Institute of Heart and Lung Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Assist Device, Dr Suresh Rao, said that the education minister’s condition was “slightly better” than what it was in Ranchi.
Dr Rao explained that through an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) system blood is pumped outside of a patient’s body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body.
“In ECMO, the gas exchange happens outside the body through the machine instead of the lungs. Once the blood is oxygenated and carbon dioxide is removed, it is given back to the heart, from where it circulates to other parts of the body,” said Dr Rao. “ECMO is a bridge therapy. We cannot keep a patient on ECMO for long, but it allows the lungs time to recover,” he added.
Some Covid patients recovered after being on ECMO for a month, and some did not, said Rao. A patient, who did not respond to ECOM, underwent a lung transplant at the hospital and was doing well now, he recalled.
Dr Apar Jindal, the Clinical Director of Lung Transplant, Interventional Pulmonology and Chest Medicine at MGM, told The Telegraph Online that Mahto was stable and in his senses on Thursday. The 54-year-old state minister was also responding to treatment, Jindal added.
Education minister Jagarnath Mahto at Jharkhand Academic Council office at Namkum in Ranchi to preside over the announcement of matriculation results in July in Ranchi Manob Chowdhury
“He is quite stable now. We have put him on ECMO, and we are giving him time to heal and respond to the treatment. We are not trying to force his lungs to start functioning at an optimum level of efficiency,” said Dr Jindal. “His blood pressure is fine. His heart rate is also normal. And we are not dealing with any infection as of now,” he added.
Dr Jindal admitted that Mahto’s lungs were badly affected due to the viral infection, but there was a possibility that his lungs may recover with time if he gets proper rest and the required medical attention. Jindal said that the doctors at MGM will give at least a couple of weeks to Mahto to respond to the treatment and allow his lungs to heal on their own.
“We cannot abruptly decide to go for a lung transplant. There are possibilities of him recovering without surgical intervention,” Jindal said.
Jagarnath Mahto, a JMM legislator from Dumri, tested positive for Covid-19 on September 28. He was shifted from the state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) to Bhagwan Mahavir Medica Superspecialty Hospital in Ranchi on October 1, where he was put on non-invasive ventilation. However, the minister’s condition did not improve during 20 days of treatment in ICU and he had to be shifted to Chennai.
Dr Jindal, who had visited Ranchi to examine Mahto earlier this week, said there was no need to retest him for Covid-19. “There are a lot of misconceptions regarding Covid-19. A patient can be healthy and still test positive in the test. The infectivity usually becomes very low after 10 to 14 days, so repeated retesting is not required,” he said.
As many as five ministers in the Jharkhand cabinet have tested positive for Covid-19 so far. State minority welfare minister Haji Hussain Ansari died of a cardiac arrest a day after testing Covid-negative at Medanta Hospital in Ranchi. Health minister Banna Gupta, drinking water and sanitation minister Mithilesh Thakur and agriculture minister Badal Patralekh also tested positive for Covid-19 earlier. All three of them recovered without any medical complications.
