Lung transplantation gives ‘second life’ to 400 patients in Portugal

Paulo Fradau’s new lungs were transplanted seven years ago at the Santa Marta hospital, giving him a “second life” like the 400 patients who have undergone the procedure since 2001, saving them from certain death.

“I was privileged to get a second life. I think few people have the honor to say this, but I say it,” he proudly told Lusa on the day that the local health unit of São José, the Santa Marta Hospital, celebrated 400 lung transplants in Portugal at a ceremony in Lisbon.

At the age of 37, Paulo Fradau was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis (abnormal and irreversible dilation of the bronchi), which led him to an appointment in 1998 at the Egas Moniz Hospital, where the doctor told him that his problem would be solved. The problem can only be solved by transplanting both lungs.

At that time, most transplants were performed in Galicia, Spain. Paulo underwent physical therapy and was hospitalized several times until the disease got “severe” in 2005 and he began using oxygen 24 hours a day.

“From consultation to consultation, from infection to infection,” he managed to keep himself going, and after 12 years of using oxygen, the pulmonologist accompanying him told him that this was the “perfect time” to offer him a transplant.

“He told me that they were already being done in Portugal with some success at the Santa Marta Hospital,” the only institution that performs lung transplants in Portugal.

He stood in line for three years, and in the second year, August 30, 2016 to be exact, his wife called him and said: “They called from Santa Marta, and I think they have enough lungs for you.”

“I was really nervous because I had a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear about the transplant,” which didn’t happen that day because I was “a mess” and “indulging in a little more beer.”

The double lung transplant took place the following year, on May 31st, and Paulo already thought that he would “have to face the transplant.”

Paulo Fradau said he is retired but leads a “very active life: I play, swim, walk every day except Sunday since the day I was discharged from the hospital.”

Santa Marta Hospital thoracic surgery coordinator Paulo Calviño told Lusa that the 400 lung transplants performed in Portugal represented “the maturity of the program and the maturity of the practice.”

“We are not celebrating the 400th anniversary [transplantes]we are actually celebrating a whole history,” said the thoracic surgeon, who heads the lung transplant unit with pulmonologist Luisa Semedo.

Paulo Calviño recalled that the first cardiopulmonary transplant was performed in Portugal in 1991 by Dr. Rui Bento. There was an interregnum, and in 2001, doctor Enrique Vaz Velho performed the first lung transplant.

In 2007, cardiothoracic surgeon José Fragata and specialist Fernando Martelo reorganized the lung transplant program to give it “the consistency and professionalism needed in a program of this demand.”

According to Paulo Calviño, it was from this point that “the program has been systematically and consistently expanded”, and the center currently performs about 40 transplants per year, reaching a maximum in 2023 (44 transplants).

Among the 400 transplant patients, of whom the youngest was 13 years old and the oldest 70 years old, there are three cases of patients who had no history of lung disease but Covid-19 damaged their lungs and they had to undergo a transplant. – said the expert.