Melissa Benoit, born with cystic fibrosis, was hospitalized in February 2016 at Toronto General Hospital with a severe lung infection after catching the flu. The bacteria in her lungs grew resistant to most antibiotics and her body went into septic shock, causing her organs to shut down one by one.
“She got into a spiral from which her lungs were not going to recover,” said Niall Ferguson, MD, of University Health Network, which oversees Toronto General. “Her only hope of recovery was a lung transplant.”
With no other treatment options left, Ms. Benoit’s care team settled on a radical plan to try to save her life: remove both lungs to eliminate the source of the bacteria infection. A team of three surgeons removed Ms. Benoit’s lungs, which were swollen and filled with mucous, during a nine hour surgery.
“And literally within minutes –— it was probably around 20 minutes after having taken those infected lungs out — her blood pressure normalized, and they could remove all the blood-pressure-supporting drugs and just leave her on the pumps that were providing the circulation,” Shaf Keshavjee, MD, one of the surgeons who operated on Ms. Benoit, told the Canadian Press.
Physicians connected a small artificial lung to Benoit’s heart and used other devices to oxygenate and circulate her blood while they waited for a set of donor lungs to become available, according to the report.
After surviving six days with no lungs, Ms. Benoit underwent a successful lung transplant and her health has steadily improved, according to the report.
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