Coronavirus US: Wisconsin woman, 52, has double lung transplant

A Wisconsin mother received a life-saving double lung transplant after a four-month-long battle with the novel coronavirus.  

Carmen Lerma, 52, a director at United Migrant Opportunity Services, in Milwaukee, tested positive for COVID-19 in July.

Her health quickly deteriorated and she was admitted to the hospital, spending 45 days in the intensive care unit on a ventilator.

Doctors quickly determined that the virus had caused irreversible damage to Lerma’s lungs and she wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital until she received a new set.

After spending just a few days on the transplant waiting list, a match was found for Lerma and, two weeks later, she was finally released from the hospital and able to reunite with her family. 

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Carmen Lerma, 52, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has undergone a life-saving double lung transplant after a four-month-long battle with coronavirus. Pictured: Lerma being released from the hospital 

Lerma, 52, was diagnosed with coronavirus in mid-July after coming into contact with an infected person. She was admitted to Ascension St Francis hospital shortly after and spent 45 days in the ICU on a ventilator. Pictured: Lerma before contracting coronavirus, left, and in the hospital, right

‘I haven’t seen [my family] in a while so to just get up and come to them is priceless,’ Lerma said a UW Health blog post.

‘I never thought that I would be able to do this again, so I really..want to thank all the UW Health doctors and nurses, It was a rough journey, but a great ending.’ 

In July, Lerma got a call from the state health department telling her she has been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19, according to WTMJ-TV.

She subsequently she tested positive as well and soon admitted to Ascension St Francis in Milwaukee.

She spent 45 days on a ventilator and, although she managed to be extubated, the virus did irreversible damage to her lungs. 

‘I got double pneumonia. I got attacked through my immune system,’ Lerma told WISN 12. 

‘This coronavirus attacked me in every way possible that it could.’ 

Lerma does not have any underlying health conditions and said she quit smoking several years ago.

She was then transferred to UW Health, in Madison, where she was told she would remain until a donor was found.  

‘It’s hard to know much time Carmen would have had,’ said Dr Dan McCarthy, a UW Health cardiothoracic surgeon, in the blog post.

‘Even in the two weeks that she was with us in the hospital, although she was committed and working hard, we saw a decline in her function to the point where we did actually place her on the artificial lung machine.’

The machine, known as an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, which allows the heart and lungs to rest.