(ConservativeHub.com) – In April, Davey Bauer developed a lung infection shortly after catching the flu. The infection was resistant to antibiotics, and 34-year-old Bauer who had a history of vaping and smoking cigarettes had to be put on a ventilator and be placed in a medically induced coma in order for his breathing to be supported.
Bauer was then taken to Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, where the surgeons ended up removing his lungs and using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, which is a life-support device in order to ensure that he would remain alive while they cleared the infection.
However, there was one problem, which was that the man could not survive without lungs physically supporting his heart so that it would remain in its place.
Dr. Ankit Bharat, the center’s chief of thoracic surgery, stated that after taking the lungs out, they realized that it was necessary for something to be added to support the heart. He added that while originally they had considered bigger things that could fit in the chest cavity, they determined in the end that DD breast implants could work as a solution.
This is the first time according to Northwestern Medicine that the procedure was used in a double-lung transplant.
Bauer said that he did not know about what had happened until much later and that he found it to be “funny” and “awesome,” according to CBS News. The implants, which were used to support his heart, were removed a day after being put in to make way for the viable donor lungs.
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