‘Been to their weddings’: SA lung transplant patient tally hits 300
An SA lung transplant care centre has reached a lifesaving milestone with its founder saying he “stays in contact with every single patient”, celebrating births and weddings.
South Australia’s lung transplant centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital has just helped its 300th patient in its groundbreaking program flagged as the first of its kind in the world.
Among the hundreds of patients linked to the facility is 47 year old Barry Lane who was cared for at the South Australian Lung Transplant Satellite Centre after having a lifesaving double lung transplant in Melbourne during 2017 due to cystic fibrosis.
Based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the non-surgical ‘satellite centre’ provides statewide services that enable lifesaving surgeries to go ahead interstate but with local care for initial assessments, post operative care, and lifelong monitoring.
SALTU was established in 1998 by Professor Mark Holmes and the heads of Heart and Lung Transplantation across the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Holmes’ wife Professor Chien-Li Holmes Liew, who received specialised training in Toronto, also works in the unit.
Just six weeks after his lung transplant, South Australian patient Lane, along with Holmes and Holmes Liew, completed the Donate for Life race in Adelaide, a six-kilometre walk raising money for people with cystic fibrosis.
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“When it came up, I thought it was a good opportunity to feel like I’ve made a contribution because of the support I got from the centre here for cystic fibrosis in South Australia and Melbourne as well,” Lane said.
“The whole thing was just amazing for me,” Lane added. “It’s been unbelievable.”
The unit’s model is based on data demonstrating that although complicated surgeries are best performed at large hospitals, patient and carer wellbeing is best at or close to home.
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A model well appreciated by Lane.
“Both teams in Melbourne and Adelaide provided exceptional support and helped me understand the severity of what was going on,” he said.
“I was at a point in my life where I didn’t have that much longer to live.”
Thanks to the transformative care provided at the satellite centre, Holmes said, “outcomes for lung transplant survival in South Australia are equal to the rest of Australia, and better than anywhere else in the world.”
“We have a very tight, specialised and experienced team who look after these patients,” Holmes told InDaily.
“It allows our patients to stay in South Australia, rather than have to go to either Melbourne or Sydney to have this expert pre-transplant care.”
Holmes told InDaily that he stays in contact with every single patient that goes through the satellite centre, as they receive post-operative care for the rest of their lives.
“Some patients I’ve looked after since they were teenagers, and been to their weddings, and celebrated the birth of their children,” Holmes said.
“It’s been a wonderful journey for a physician.”
