A Class X student, who mistakenly gulped down herbicide at home and caused irreversible damage to his lungs, underwent a lung transplant at Medica Superspecialty Hospital recently.
Swapnil Biswas, 16, is now doing well, but doctors said he would be under observation for another two to three weeks.
The post-transplant period is very crucial, said Dipanjan Chatterjee, a doctor who is treating the boy.
Swapnil was admitted to a hospital in Barasat in April after he mistook a herbicide bottle for water. He was discharged after a week but when he experienced severe shortness of breath, he was admitted to Medica in mid-May.
Pathological tests like a chest CT scan confirmed that the boy’s lungs were damaged badly.
“The damage was irreversible and he had to be put on ECMO support for 37 days. We realised that lung transplant was the only option,” said Chatterjee.
Chatterjee said ECMO was a step up from ventilation.
When ventilation fails to provide the oxygen required by a patient, the ECMO machine is put into use. ECMO machines artificially conduct the gaseous exchange and give the required oxygen.
On June 23, Medica received an alert from the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) that a 41-year-old patient in Bhubaneswar, who had been declared brain dead, was a suitable candidate for donation.
A team of doctors from Medica went to Bhubaneswar to retrieve the organs.
Kunal Sarkar, senior vice-chairman of the hospital, said a lung transplant was difficult, especially because the lungs have to be operated on within six hours of retrieval of the organ from the dead person.
In this case, the six-hour deadline included the flight duration between Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
Since then Swapnil has responded well to the treatment. He has been taken off ECMO support. Ventilation support, too, has been reduced.
Doctors said he is sitting in bed in an upright position and undergoing physiotherapy for increasing the strength in his muscles.
The surgery and treatment before and post the transplant surgery have so far cost Rs 70 lakh and will go up in the coming days, said an official of the hospital.
Swapnil’s father is a private tutor, his mother a homemaker and his sister is a postgraduate student.
“The state government has agreed to give Rs 5 lakh under the Swasthya Sathi scheme. Part of the treatment cost will be borne by the family. The rest will be raised from corporates and through crowdfunding. We request corporates to come forward and donate,” said a hospital official.