Doctors perform a lung transplant for a patient with congenital heart disease at Việt Đức Hospital in Hà Nội. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — Doctors from the Hà Nội-based Việt Đức hospital announced they have successfully completed a lung transplant for a patient with congenital heart disease.

Over the past two years, doctors at the hospital have carried out two lung transplants from a brain-dead donor, but this is the first time Vietnamese doctors have performed the transplant for a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congenital heart disease at the same time.

Without the transplant, the patient would have soon died from cardiac-pulmonary dysfunction.

The patient frequently suffered from hypoxia and was unable to work. She registered with a lung transplant programme at the hospital at the end of 2018.

Phùng Duy Hồng Sơn, from the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Department, said the surgery was conducted on December 17. Due to complications, it took 12 hours for doctors to complete the operation.

The patient is now able to breathe without the support of a machine. She can eat and digest well.

Son said the successful lung transplant has great significant, opening opportunities for many other patients, particularly young ones. — VNS