Woman Couldn’t Live With Her Lungs – so Doctors Removed Them in ‘World First’

Melissa Benoit has lived with cystic fibrosis her whole life – and if it weren’t for a daring double-transplant procedure, the condition would have claimed her life.

The 33-year-old mother came down with influenza which led the bacteria in her lungs to spread throughout her body until she reportedly succumbed to septic shock, causing her organs to totally shut down despite life support systems.

As her condition worsened, her doctors conferred with the family and made a risky decision: they would remove the cause of the sepsis by removing her lungs altogether.

For six days, Melissa was kept alive via an artificial heart, kidney, and lung machine until she was strong enough to receive a new pair of lungs from an organ donor. The successful procedure is currently being called a world-first.

“They pulled me back from the dead,” Benoit said as she thanked her family during a news conference on Wednesday. “Foremost I have to thank my donor and my donor’s family. Without them, whatever procedure the physicians would have performed would have been useless.”

Her recovery has been swift, and she is walking and playing with her child once again.


http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/woman-couldnt-live-lungs-doctors-removed/

Organ donors are such blessings. I totally want to be able to save lives after my death.