About Dennis’s case
Dennis Deer, a fifty-five-year-old psychologist and the Cook County commissioner for the 2nd district in Illinois, had failing lungs and a rare inflammatory condition “polymyositis” which scarred his lungs.
With the need to carry supplemental oxygen, it became more difficult for him to do his job.
“I was gasping for air after 10 steps. It was terrible,” he stated.
Dennis was on the lung transplant list, but all the organs inside his chest, abdomen, and lungs were flipped.
Situs inversus is a rare condition that affects one person every 10,000 and is associated with around 100 various genes.
Dr. Ankit Bharat stated, “When the fetus is developing and the organs are swapped, the fetus often gets naturally aborted from the body unless it’s steady with life.”
In the past, many individuals were unaware that their organs were oriented backward, but now it has become common for people like Dennis to discover this during regular medical check-ups.
“when someone tries to listen to their heart, and they don’t get a heartbeat on the left side, they get an x-ray and find everything is reversed,” Dr. Ankit stated.
Another patient.
Just like Dennis Deer, Yahaira Vega a 27-year-old resident of Elgin, Illinois, a city located near the Fox River and approximately 35 miles northwest of Chicago, experienced difficulty breathing due to the condition called situs inverse, which sometimes comes with a rare disorder known as primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD).
PCD is a genetic condition, which is caused by defects in small hair-like structures called cilia that are found in the lungs. The main responsibility of these cilia is to move germs and debris caught in mucus out of the airways. If the cilia does not function properly, the lungs can’t remove the mucus buildup, which can sometimes reach dangerous levels.
“Situs inverse is rare but having another rare condition that also causes lung damage to the point of needing a lung transplant is even rarer,” Bharat stated.
Vega’s condition worsened. She said can fill up a 32-ounce cup with the mucus she had coughed up every day.
She also stated, “It felt like being a prisoner, like a bird in a cage. You can still hear the bird singing a magnificent song, but a very sad one.”
“I feel like a baby sleeping all the time unable to regulate anything in my body,” she said
The extraordinary surgery
Dennis and Vega have been placed on the waitlist for lung transplants, as they both require personalized treatment. For individuals with situs inversus who require organ transplants, it is an extremely challenging endeavor.
Bharat explained that the old lungs with reversed placement need to be replaced with new lungs that have normal placement. The surgery requires technical modifications to ensure the new lungs fit into the chest cavity.
They have to reattach the blood vessels created in the útero for the left lung to a “normal” right lung. Additionally, Deer’s and vega’s backward lungs grew new blood vessels to satisfy the reversal.
“It’s like cutting off a left sleeve and working out how to reattach it to the right sleeve,” Ankit said.
The successful transplants for Dennis and Vega
Dennis and Vega both had a successful transplant in the span of 23 days.
After waiting nine days on the transplant list, doctors identified an identical lung contributor to Vega.
Vega obtained her new lungs on April 28 at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She was asked about her intentions. First, she said she wanted to laugh.
although she isn’t strong enough to laugh fully, she hopes to one day.
She said she feels great, and she feels amazing now. “finally I can hope to be more than a sick, disabled girl that can’t get off the couch without assistance.”
Then May 22 was the day Dennis received his lungs. After he woke from surgery, he was very shocked to be able to breathe without the oxygen tank.
Additionally, He said, “Where’s my oxygen? Then my wife said, ‘Well, you don’t need it anymore. He looked at his oximeter and it was reading 99%.'”
“It’s a miracle,” he also stated. Looking at Vega, he said. “We are both miracles.”
By Samuel Cruz
Sources:
CNN Health: Normal lungs successfully transplanted into bodies with reversed organs
ABC News: 2 patients receive double-lung transplants due to rare ‘flipped organs’ condition
ABC 7: Northwestern Medicine successfully performs double-lung transplant on 2 patients with rare condition
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Rajeev Nair Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Ken Lund Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
