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US surgeons used an artificial lung and breast implants to save the life of a Missouri man who needed a double lung transplant when his lungs were very badly infected. A brilliant idea and a world first!
In late May, surgeons at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute removed 34-year-old David Bauer’s infected lungs, created an artificial lung to keep him alive and placed DD breast implants in his chest cavity to keep the heart in place. Discover the incredible story of this surgical feat.
Very sporty and a sports enthusiast, Davey Bauer, 34, works in development in Missouri, near Saint-Louis. A smoker since age 21, he turned to vaping in 2014. In April, Bauer began experiencing shortness of breath, was diagnosed with influenza A and developed an antibiotic-resistant lung infection. Admitted to a Saint-Louis hospital, he is placed on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), a device that carries out the work of the heart and lungs. But his condition worsens and quickly his only option to survive is a double transplant.
“Davey’s lungs were so badly infected that they began to liquefy. If you looked at his x-ray, there was nothing left – the lungs were completely filled with pus” admits Dr. Rade Tomic, pulmonologist and medical director of the lung transplant center at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.
The infection was so advanced that the team had no choice but to remove the lungs, pending a transplant. The surgical team removes the infected lungs and creates an “artificial lung” that can attach to Bauer’s body, allowing blood to flow to the heart, while keeping his brain and other organs perfused, in the meantime. of a transplant.
But once both lungs are removed, how do we keep his heart from collapsing inside the now “empty” chest cavity? And that’s where the idea of DD breast implants came about.
Surgeons use breast implants to keep the heart in place
Briefed by a plastic surgeon from the center, the team chose the option of DD breast prostheses to “mold” them into Davey’s chest. “I never imagined we would use DD breast implants to help a patient receive a lung transplant, but our team is known for tackling the most difficult cases and thinking outside the box to save lives” admits Professor Ankit Bharat, head of the thoracic surgery unit.
Cleared of his lungs on May 26, Davey’s body managed to eliminate the infection. The next day, a graft is available. On May 28, the breast implants were removed and the donor lungs transplanted. After several months recovering in the intensive care unit and then in rehabilitation at the end of September, Davey Bauer said he was very grateful to be alive “thanks to the support of his girlfriend, family, friends and his transplant team at Northwestern Medicine who never gave up on me“. He took the opportunity to warn about the dangers of smoking and vaping.
Hope for patients today without a solution
On being the first transplant patient to temporarily benefit from breast implants in place of his lungs, Bauer jokes that his new nickname is “DD Davey”: “I plan to make a t-shirt that says ‘DD Davey’ on it and edit all my gaming profiles. But in all seriousness, I’m very proud to be the first patient at Northwestern Medicine to undergo this procedure innovative, and I hope that it can soon benefit a greater number of seriously ill patients awaiting a lung transplant“. To learn more about Bauer’s medical journey, visit his GoFundMe page .
For Professor Ankit Bharat, this technique will offer a new option to patients who currently have no therapeutic solution. “With this new approach we have developed, many patients who need a lung transplant – but whose damaged lungs make them too ill to receive one – can now potentially benefit from one. I think this will offer a lot of hope to many patients who currently have no other options.“.