Lung transplant patient is stable

A woman who underwent the first lung-transplant operation in the State this week is in a stable condition at Dublin's Mater hospital…

A woman who underwent the first lung-transplant operation in the State this week is in a stable condition at Dublin's Mater hospital.

The 55-year-old woman underwent the operation at the hospital in the early hours of Thursday morning.

She continues to be treated in intensive care, and doctors remain cautiously optimistic about her prognosis.

The woman is understood to have been waiting a number of months for a suitable donor lung to become available. She is suffering from emphysema, a condition in which the lungs lose their normal elasticity, leading to severe breathing problems. It is the commonest condition for which a lung transplant is required.

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The transplant was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team led by Dr Jim Egan, consultant respiratory physician and lead transplant physician, and Freddie Wood and Jim McCarthy, cardiothoracic surgeons.

The operation took approximately three hours.