SW Iowa Times

The University of Iowa Organ Transplant Center performed a successful double lung transplant on a 58-year-old Illinois man who survived COVID-19 but whose lungs were severely damaged by the virus.

After surviving COVID-19, Randy McIntyre of Andalusia, Illinois, could not leave the hospital because his lungs were so badly damaged, the transplant center said on its website.

"Just a few months after his COVID-19 diagnosis, Randy's one hope for survival was a lung transplant," the center said.

A team performed the transplant in June. 

"Randy’s transplant was the first of two COVID-19-related lung  transplants performed to date at the UI Organ Transplant Center," the center said. 

The procedure went well.

“I feel great,” McIntyre said in a story on the center's website. “To be able to wake up every morning and breathe in fresh air is a wonderful thing.”

The number of COVID-19 survivors who will need lung transplants is likely to increase in the future, said Dr. Kalpaj R. Parekh, surgical director of the University of Iowa Health Care’s lung transplant program.

One category of patients who might need transplants are those whose already had lung disease and then contracted a mild case of COVID-19.

Scarring of their lungs could eventually get worse, Parekh said.

"Only time will tell whether we see more transplants" in this category of patients, he said.

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