Australia’s first patient to undergo a lung transplant to treat an irreversible COVID-19-related lung injury has had a successful outcome, his doctors say.

After spending almost six months on venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, the 61-year-old underwent the bilateral lung transplant when his lung function failed to improve.

In 2022, the patient, who had been triple vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, presented to hospital with acute type 1 respiratory failure following five days of coryzal symptoms and a positive rapid antigen test result for COVID-19.

He had been previously healthy and was an ex-smoker (<5 pack-years) with a history of mild asthma, his treating doctors reported in The Medical Journal of Australia.