Illinois Health Care Worker Receives a “COVID to COVID” Double-Lung Transplant and Returns Home One Year After Contracting COVID-19

Renato Aquino is the first-known COVID-19 patient to receive lungs from a COVID-19 donor at Northwestern Medicine

On February 25, Northwestern Medicine surgeons successfully performed the transplant using lungs from a donor who previously had COVID-19 and cleared the virus after having mild to moderate symptoms. The donor‘s death was unrelated to COVID-19 and their lungs didn‘t suffer any permanent damage from the virus, making them viable for transplantation. After receiving the transplant, Aquino is now able to breathe on his own without supplemental oxygen and returned home to Glendale Heights, Ill., where he continues to recover.