Medics in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Province, central China, are on their way transferring Cui An to the Intensive Care Unit in the same hospital on April 6 (YOUTH.CN)  

Fourteen days after a double lung transplant surgery, 65-year-old Cui An was lying in bed in good condition at a special isolation ward of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (RHWU), Hubei Province in central China, on May 5, with all the people around him relieved with his hard-won recovery.  

About three months ago on February 7, Cui was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and as his condition deteriorated, he was put on invasive ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a kind of artificial lung, in succession.  

During the treatment, Cui tested negative for coronavirus several times, indicating that he was already in the rehabilitation stage. However, his lungs had developed irreversible pulmonary fibrosis and respiratory failure due to the virus, so he could not be taken off ventilator and ECMO, and his life was at stake.  

After a comprehensive evaluation, an expert group organized by the National Health Commission (NHC) finally decided to conduct lung transplantation. Jiao Yahui, a specialist with the Bureau of Medical Administration at the NHC, told The Paper, a Shanghai-based news website, that lung transplantation is not a conventional treatment for the novel coronavirus, but clinically it is the only effective way to cure advanced lung lesions at present.  

On April 22, 44 hours after the surgery, Cui was successfully taken off the ECMO that had assisted him to breathe for 62 days. Cui is the patient who was administered ECMO for the longest period in the world before undergoing a lung transplantation surgery. Subsequently, under the care of medical groups, he successively passed through multiple hazards such as anti-rejection after the transplantation.   

Under the principle of “all confirmed patients should be treated”, the medical group of the central guidance group has attached great importance to the treatment of critically ill patients like Cui.  

Lin Huiqing, a senior doctor with the Thoracic Surgery Department, the RHWU, is one of the experts who conducted Cui’s surgery. She said it was a high-risk procedure. “After putting on the surgery headgears, we could not talk at all, thus the whole process was completed based on experience and tacit understanding,” she said, adding that the highly challenging surgical precision requires utmost physical and mental endurance of the doctors.  

The long period of bed rest enervated Cui’s muscles and the muscle strength declined to zero. To accelerate the recovery, the RHWU established a special rehabilitation expert team and designed a series of rehabilitation plans including sensory and auditory stimulation, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, joint activity training, acupressure and music therapy.  

Ten days after the surgery, Cui began to recover gradually.  

“With poor muscle strength, it was tiring for him to breath on his own,” Li Guang, an associate professor with the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the RHWU, told The Paper, saying that Cui can breathe without the ventilator for around half an hour per day. If everything goes well, after the muscle strength reaches over 4 degrees, he can breathe on his own completely.  

On April 26, it was announced that the all of the novel coronavirus cases in Wuhan were cleared. However, some patients like Cui who have already tested negative are still receiving treatment since they are generally elderly patients with a variety of basic diseases which are hard to cure. The NHC is doing everything to save their lives.  

Copyedited by Madhusudan Chaubey  

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