Thanks to a temporary set of double lung transplant and D breast implants, a Missouri man who had been vaping for ten years and suffered from lung failure has survived.
In 2014, Davey Bauer, 34, gave up smoking in favor of vaping, believing it to be “the healthier alternative.” However, he soon discovered that vaping was “more addicting than cigarettes.”
In April, after contracting an antibiotic-resistant secondary lung infection and the flu, he developed a habit of smoking one cartridge every day, which the doctors attributed to lung failure.
Due to the extreme damage to Mr. Bauer’s lungs, St. Louis doctors concluded that a double lung transplant was his best option.
After being moved to Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the infection quickly caused a cardiac arrest.
The lungs that were removed from Bauer, 34, were so severely infected that “they started to liquify,” according to Dr. Rade Tomic, medical director of Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute Lung Transplant Program in Chicago. As a result, doctors there created an artificial lung to keep Bauer alive.
In addition, once Bauer’s infected lungs were removed, the medical professionals needed a means to prevent his heart from bursting inside his chest cavity.
Breast Implant to Lung Transplanted
Bauer’s medical team came up with a plan to remove the diseased lungs as well as replace them with a specially designed “artificial lung” which would continue to supply oxygen to his organs and brain.
His heart would be supported by breast implants until he could have new lungs transplanted.
On May 26, doctors removed Bauer’s infected lungs, and his body started to rid itself of the infection right away.
Physicians removed the breast implants as well as inserted the donor lungs on May 28. Bauer was sent to rehabilitation in late September after spending several months in an intensive care unit recovering.
For the upcoming year, Bauer will stay in Chicago so that his transplant team can keep a close eye on him.
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