First double lung transplant with help from a robot eases recovery

A New York hospital says it has performed the first fully robotic double lung transplant.

The procedure is aimed at speeding up the healing process and shortening hospital stays. It builds on other minimally invasive procedures; back in 2022, Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles completed a partially robotic single lung transfer. And here at the NYU Langone Health Center on the East Side of Manhattan, doctors announced in September that they had performed the first fully robotic single lung transplant.

The double lung procedure was conducted on 57-year-old resident of upstate New York, Cheryl Mehrkar, on Oct. 22.

For more than a decade, Mehrkar has suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which only worsened after a bout of COVID.

In speaking to Reuters from her hospital bed, Mehrkar recalled signs when she knew her health problems were becoming severe.

"I remember I had to take a call at a nursing home as an EMT, and the 85-year old security guard got up those stairs better than I could," she said. "I knew, this is not good."

Being sidelined was particularly painful for Mehrkar, who has led an active life from her home in Dutchess County. In addition to her work as an EMT, she has also owned a karate school with her husband, Shahin Mehrkar. She's a motorcycle enthusiast, as well.

She spent years looking for help before NYU Langone said she was eligible for a lung transplant.

"Once they put me on the list, I figured, OK, I have a couple more months to go. And five days later, I got the call. They said they have a 98% match. And how soon can you get here? And my first reaction was 'holy, you know what. And I'll be there in two hours.'"

During the procedure, a team of doctors works in tandem with the robot as it enters the body, removes the diseased lungs, prepares the surgical site for implantation, and then implants the donor lungs, all through a small incision on each side. As a result, compared with typical lung transplant surgeries, the incisions are reduced from roughly 8 inches to 2, according to Dr. Stephanie H. Chang, the surgical director of the Lung Transplantation Program at NYU Langone Health who conducted the procedure.

"There's significantly less trauma on the chest wall," she said.

Convalescing at the hospital, Mehrkar is already up and walking. She's just days aways from being released, roughly a month after going under the knife.

But she's focused on those who have helped her, including her organ donor.

"All I know, it was a younger male. That's it. When you think about that … the family is grieving and two weeks later, I'm breathing with his lungs."