by “It does not generate me absolutely nothing be a medical landmark, it does not have no intrinsic value that. I speak with you to tell the institutions invest in this system and in the public health, so that it can be done all over Spain”. The person talking on the other end of the phone is xavier, 65, retired industrial electrician, first patient in the world to receive a lung transplant using a Da Vinci robot.
Along with this milestone, Vall d’Hebron has achieved another by finding a new access road remove the diseased lung and insert the new one (the subxiphoid surgery), Which avoid opening the trunk on either side, as it has been done so far. This drastically changes the postoperative period sick people.
“I didn’t have any pain. The pain was nil. The transplant was done without me suffering. Lung transplants are very traumatic because you have to open the rib cage to remove one or both lungs. I only had one transplant,” says Xavier.
The intervention took place last February. It was a success and this Monday the hospital held a press conference to present this case to the world and the one more patients can benefit of this new technique which consists, roughly speaking, of a eight centimeter incision in the skin below the xiphoid and above the diaphragm.
“[A los políticos] Invest in this system and in public health, so that this can be done throughout Spain”
Xavier, who received the High medical last week, he explained his case without giving it more importance, but with a clear intention: “I want to send this message to politicians: invest in this machine so that this technique reaches all of Spain”.
Disease
In 2005, at age 47, Xavier began to feel Very tired. Over time, he was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. Although in 2009 they offered the transplant, he decided against it. “I had one quality of life grateful enough to don’t jump in the pool” Explain.
But, from 2009 to 2023, the thing was worse. “I had had a very slight but constant lung caries. They recommended I use oxygen, but I looked for all the alternatives to avoid it. It’s a disease that leaves you without oxygen.”
The doctors explained to him that it was fibrosis different from the norm. And there came a time when certain age, it was not appropriate to “lengthen” the thing. For that accepted a lung transplant. “I had all features what they needed to start a new technique for this transplant and which had already been used in other diseases” account. Moreover, this technique it was made 100% with a Da Vinci robot.
28 days in an induced coma
In February of this year, Xavier was transplanted. Even if “everything went very well”, it was 28 days in an induced coma and with extracorporeal breathing. Healing was “very slow” as he suffered from sepsis. But, from the “first day”, he woke upthe pain after the operation was “zero”, insist.
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“Now yes lots of exercise and walking to regain the body mass I lost. FOR respiratory level I’m fine”, says Xavier, who assures that he has always been treated by the toilets of Vall d’Hebron with “a lot of delicacy and interest”. “I am in love with my professionals and all this was public health”, insist.
Although he was scared several times, he claims to feel “happy” to be alive. That not only the new technique “worked” for him, but also the “machine”. “When you play with a letter in which they can only leave you two colors, you are always afraid. But I am not crazy: when I decided to transplant, I thought about all the pros and cons. If he said no, he only had two years to live ahead of him. So I signed ‘yes'”, he concludes.
