Doctors perform world's first living donor lung transplant to Covid-19 patient in Japan

Doctors in Japan have performed the world's first-ever living donor lung transplant on a patient with severe lung damage from Covid-19.

A Japanese woman's life was saved by the nearly 11-hour operation carried out by a medical team of 30 after her husband and son donated parts of their lungs, doctors said on Thursday, according to the Daily Mail. 

The recipient, identified only as a woman from Japan's western region of Kansai, is recovering, Kyoto University Hospital said, along with her donor family members.

Doctors transplanted tissue from her husband and son's healthy lungs to replace parts of the patient's failing lungs. In the case of a live-donor transplantation, two donors are required.

Transplants from braindead donors in Japan are still rare, and living donors are considered a more realistic option for patients. 

Covid-19 can cause severe lung damage in some patients, and people around the world have received lung transplants as part of their recovery. 

But the Kyoto hospital said it was the world's first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a Covid-19 patient with lung damage. 

The woman contracted Covid-19 late last year and developed breathing difficulties that rapidly worsened. 

She was placed on a life support machine that works as an artificial lung for more than three months at another hospital because her lungs were so severely damaged.

The university said even after she was free of the virus, her lungs were no longer functional or treatable, meaning the only remaining option was for her to receive a lung transplant.