Kolkata student gets new lease of life after remaining on ventilator for 37 days, his saviour a brain-dead man from Odisha

The lungs of a brain-dead man in Odisha were successfully transplanted into the body of a teenager in Kolkata who had accidentally consumed a pesticide stored in a cold drink bottle in early May.

Kolkata: A teenage boy's life was saved after doctors in Kolkata successfully conducted a lung transplant surgery on Saturday using the donated organ of a brain-dead man in Odisha.

City-based Medica Superspecialty Hospital performed its first lung transplant surgery on the 16-year-old boy who had accidentally consumed a pesticide in May this year. The lungs of the brain-dead man who met with an accident in Odisha were transplanted into the body of 16-year-old boy Swapnil Biswas from Kolkata.

Earlier, a lung transplant was done in the same medical facility, but the patient passed away within a few days. However, Swapnil is completely healthy after the surgery with the doctors seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as lung transplant is concerned.

Swapnil is a Class X student who lives in Barasat area of North 24 Parganas district. His family said that he accidentally consumed Paraquat Dichloride, a type of pesticide, since it was stored in a cold drink bottle. Swapnil was first taken to a hospital in Barasat after he started having respiratory problems.

As his condition worsened, he was brought to this private hospital on the EM Bypass. When this pesticide enters the body, it destroys various organs. In many cases, there is rapid deterioration followed by death. If alive, severe side effects can be seen within seven days. Then there is a risk of the kidney, liver, and lung being completely dysfunctional.

In the teenager's case, the most severe damage was to the lungs. Looking at the internal images, it looked as if someone had burned his lungs and turned them black. Seven days after the accident, he was brought to Medica Hospital. The only option was a lung transplant. As a result, the family was eagerly waiting for a donor.

On the other hand, the teenager was on artificial lung or ECMO support for 37 consecutive days to keep the heart functioning and stay alive. They received the news of the brain death of a person involved in an accident in Odisha last Saturday. As his lungs were matched, a team of doctors went to Odisha to collect the lungs. But there was another big problem attached to it — cost.

An application was made to the state government on behalf of the private hospital for financial aid. The government responded to the request and Rs 5 lakh was sanctioned from the state coffers straightaway. Swapnil's surgery started at midnight on Saturday under the health card. The surgery lasted for about eight hours. Doctors Kunal Sarkar, Soumyajit Bose and Saptarshi Roy performed a complex surgery on the boy and achieved success.

Various organ transplants have been done before, but this was the first private medical facility to successfully perform lung transplants, informed Dr. Kunal Sarkar. "Lung transplant is the most complicated surgery because two organs have to be transplanted in the human body in just three hours. It was a challenge for us," Dr Sarkar said.