Doctors have successfully carried out the first double lung transplant in Canada for a man whose lungs were destroyed by Coronavirus.
In December, 61-year-old Tim Sauve, was ill with COVID-19 when he discovered he was getting dizzy at home in Mississauga, Ontario. Few days later, he ended up in hospital and was unable to breathe.
While talking to CTV News’ Chief Medical Correspondent, Avis Favaro, Sauve said: “I was put on 100 percent oxygen at that moment, and after that there was no turning back, they could not lower my oxygen. At that point it got very, very serious.”
In January, Sauve was moved to Toronto General Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome -otherwise known as lung failure – induced by COVID-19. On getting to ICU, he was also placed on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a treatment that transports the blood outside the body into an artificial lung to get oxygenated and then transports the blood back into the patient, basically offering heart-lung bypass aid.
While talking about Sauve’s condition at that time, Respirologist and member of the Toronto General Hospital lung transplant program, Dr. Stephen Juvet said: “He had really no prospect of recovery as far as we could tell, things looked pretty dire and it looked quite unlikely that he would be able to pull through.”
Other organs of Sauve were not failing, but chances that his lungs would recover were little, which is why a chance at survival with a transplant was offered to him by doctors.
However, Sauve became the first COVID-19 patient in Canada to receive a double lung transplant in mid-February.
After the operation, Sauve said he felt like “a million dollars.” He has lost 30 pounds and said “everyone” was amazed at his quick recovery.
Around 40 lung transplants have been carried out for Coronavirus patients worldwide, a procedure considered high-risk with life-long medications needed to forestall organ rejection.
The increase in variants of concern in Canada and their ability to infect younger patients means that lung transplants for chronic Coronavirus cases could become more common.
Surgeon-in-chief at University Health Network in Toronto and Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, Dr. Shaf Keshavjee described it as a watch and wait situation.
He said: “We had a meeting with the other transplant centres in Canada, and they’re sort of looking and waiting, watching what to do…knowing that they’re very difficult and high-risk transplants to do.
“When do you resort to transplant is really answering the very difficult question: When is the lung irreparably damaged?”
He added that ECMO could keep a patient alive for “four to six weeks” in the past but now works for six to seven months.
He said: “We’ve seen lungs recover in three, four or five months, they get off ECMO and go home to their lives, so when do you jump to transplant? How do you know that the lung is irreparably damaged – a lot of lungs can look really bad on CT scans and X-rays and recover.”
In Sauve’s situation, his lungs began to heal “in the wrong way” and he developed acute scarring and fibroids. According to Keshavjee, that’s when we started to have the discussion that “you know, your only way out of this is with a transplant.”
Sauve is hoping to go back home in just a few months, but issued a stern warning from his hospital bed after all his family members contracted COVID-19. His prospective father-in-law, 80-year-old Juanito Teng died of COVID-19 complications but his partner, Julie Garcia and her son did not fall sick at all.
Sauve said: “It’s an opportunity for me to tell people, don’t take your guard down for one minute.
“It is so powerful, and it’s so quick. It’s unbelievable. I don’t wish this upon anyone ever.”
