Chennai: Nazar Dianov was taken to Chennai in the ventilator as a baby, but the four-year-old child will soon fly back to his house in Russia with a new pair of lungs.
Nearly seven months after the doctor conducted a bi-lateral lung transplant, Dianov slowly returned to a almost normal life, say a doctor.
On Wednesday, Dianov, who was still in the sterile MGM Heathcare unit, was seen playing with his mother, who was also a nurse.
His grandmother, Olga Dianova, told reporters that the family decided to bring children to India because they had no other choice.
“He needs a new lung to live but there is no hospital that we approach willing to transplant,” he said.
With children in the ventilator, the family waited almost three years before he got a pair of new lungs.
“We thank India for this generous gift,” he said.
The boy was diagnosed with fibrosis alveolitis – unknown causes mainly involving the parts of the lungs that exchanged gas – when he was two months old.
He immediately used a ventilator.
Four months later, the doctor committed a tracheostomy – a hole made on the front of the neck so that the tube can be put into the throat (trachea) so the child breathes.
He was then taken to MGM Healthcare for lung transplants.
The doctor at the hospital said this was one of the longest duration for a child to be stored in the ventilator before undergoing a successful transplant.
“Foreigners get organs only when no other Indians need.
Even more difficult if the patient is a child, because children will need organs of their age donors.
We don’t have a pediatric corpse registry.
During a pandemic, almost no organs , “said the senior transplant surgeon Dr.
K R Balakrishnan, who heads the heart and lung transplant program in the hospital.
In December 2020, the hospital received a call about the organ of a two-year-old child who was declared dead by a doctor in a letter.
A team of doctors from the hospital harvest organ and use it for Dianov on December 15, 2020.
“Nazar is in observations in ICU care for almost seven months.
We are happy now to report that new lungs are transplanted respond well,” said Dr.
Kg Suresh Rao, a colleague’s heart and lung transplant program in the hospital.