COVID-19 patient didn't recognize her body after double-lung transplant - WUSA9.com

CHICAGO — A Chicago woman who last month became the nation's first COVID-19 patient to undergo a double lung transplant said Thursday that she woke up days later, unaware about the surgery and unable to "recognize my body.”.

Mayra Ramirez said that before she fell ill she was an independent, active person who moved from North Carolina to Chicago in 2014 to work as a paralegal.

Ramirez underwent the lung transplant on June 5 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

RELATED: Coronavirus survivor in Chicago receives double lung transplant.

Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of the Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program, said Ramirez, who was on a ventilator, fought for her life for six weeks, with the virus completely destroying her lungs.

Ramirez, sitting next to her mother during a news conference at the hospital, said her family made the trip to Chicago with the intention of saying goodbye.

“Lung transplant isn’t for every patient with COVID-19, but it does offer some of the critically ill patients another option for survival,” Bharat said.

“We are all learning together and sharing best practices, and now lung transplant is part of COVID-19 care,” Bharat said.