This was the first time such a surgery was performed at Northwestern hospital.
The life of a man who vaped for years was saved by breast implants that played a crucial role, according to a report in CBS News. Both the lungs of 34-year-old Davey Bauer had become infected because of his habit, requiring him to undergo a double lung transplant. Mr Bauer, who lives near Saint Louis, had started smoking a pack of cigarettes a day when he was 21, until he switched to vaping in 2014. He thought vaping was healthier alternative to vaping, but found it to be addictive.
Mr Bauer visited Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago when he started suffering from shortness of breath in April this year. He was diagnosed with the flu, and developed an antibiotic-resistant infection in both lungs.
Doctors who performed the surgery said Mr Bauer's lungs were so infected that they started to liquefy.
"If you looked at his X-ray, there was nothing left - the lungs were completely filled with pus," Dr Rade Tomic, director of the lung transplant program at Northwestern, was quoted as saying by CBS News.
"When we received a call from Davey's medical team in St Louis, we thought we could help him, but it was also very clear he wouldn't survive the transplant in his current condition. He needed to clear the infection before we could list him for transplant, but the only way to do that was to remove both lungs," he added.
The surgeons removed both of Mr Bauer's lungs, used an artificial lung (as part of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO, a respiratory support to needy) to keep him alive and placed a DD breast implants in his chest cavity to keep his heart in place.
Authorities at Northwestern Memorial Hospital said this is the first time such a procedure had been performed at the medical facility.