State education minister Jagarnath Mahto, who was on life support for 21 days after testing positive for a Coronavirus infection, underwent lung transplant surgery at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (GM) Healthcare in Chennai on Tuesday.

“We found a suitable donor today (Tuesday) and decided to immediately proceed with the transplant,” said Dr. Apar Jindal, the Clinical Director of Lung Transplant, Interventional Pulmonology and Chest Medicine at MGM.

Mahto underwent the surgery at night and was subsequently shifted to the ICU of the hospital, Jindal said. “We are done with the surgery and he (Mahto) is stable. He is not on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) anymore, and we hope he will be fine very soon,” he added.

As per the standard practice, the minister will be kept under observation in the ICU for the next two weeks. However, he will be conscious while under observation.

Dr. Suresh Rao, Co-director of Institute of Heart and Lung Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Assist Device at MGM, told The Telegraph Online that Mahto was in the operation theatre for three hours for the surgery, and was stable after the procedure was complete.

“We will keep him on medication and see how he is responding,” Rao said.

According to doctors at MGM, the success rate of lung transplant is 70 percent. Mahto is the fifth Covid-19 patient to undergo a lung transplant at MGM hospital. Three of the four patients who underwent the surgery in the past are doing well. One of them could not survive.

Mahto was in the priority list of patients in need of lung transplant in the Tamil Nadu capital, said Dr. Rao, refusing to disclose the identity of the donor in accordance with the protocol.

Fifty-three-year-old Mahto, a JMM legislator from Dumri Assembly constituency, tested positive for Covid-19 on September 28 and was admitted to state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi. He was shifted to the ICU of Bhagwan Mahavir Medica Superspecialty Hospital in the state capital on October 1 and put on non-invasive ventilation. The minister was flown to Chennai on October 19 after his lungs showed no signs of improvement and was put on ECMO, a life support system.