PHILADELPHIA — Zoli’s parents plan to get their 4-year-old son vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as shots for young children could finally become available later this month.
The reality is that transplant is reserved in very selected options for patients with advanced lung condition, said Dr. Christian Bermudez, director of Penn s thoracic transplantation. We were concerned that the number would be so overwhelming and that patients would be so sick that none of them would get to transplants. And we were wrong.
The coronavirus has left thousands of U.S. patients with badly-damaged organs. Many of them have developed acute respiratory distress syndrome – a condition in which fluid develops in the lungs air sacs – or pulmonary fibrosis, the scarring of lung tissue.
As as a result, transplants are becoming increasingly common among COVID-19 patients with irreversible lung damage.