Artificial Lung Successfully Saves Lives

Transplant surgeons used an external artificial lung to keep a dying patient alive while waiting for a lung donor. This is the first documented case in North America

Doctors have said, "This has taken lung transplantation and the number of patients we can save to a new height." Doctors can soon use an artificial lung as a temporary lung replacement until transplantation and as a way to take the strain off disease-injured lungs until they have a chance to heal. Yen Tran, 21 year old mother of 3, had her blood looped through a femoral device which added oxygen to her blood and removed carbon dioxide from it — the same way your lungs work, for 2 days. Roughly 20 per cent of people with primary pulmonary hypertension die while waiting for lung transplants. In Tran's case, however, the device called Novalung gave her 2 extra days, which was the time she needed before donor lungs were available.