Patient with no lungs kept alive for two days with artificial system until life-saving transplant

Surgeons in the US have described how they kept a man without lungs alive for two days before a transplant was available. A 33-year-old man in Illinois developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, a life-threatening condition in which inflammation and infection overwhelm the lungs. Triggered by the flu, his lungs deteriorated rapidly and were further compromised by bacterial pneumonia — eventually his lungs, heart, and kidneys started to fail. Northwestern University thoracic surgeon Ankit Bharat said a double lung transplant became the patient’s only chance for survival. “He was critically ill. His heart stopped as soon as he arrived, we had to perform CPR,” he said. “When the infection is so severe that the lungs are melting, they’re irrecoverably damaged. That’s when patients die.” To solve the problem, Dr Bharat and his team emergency engineered an artificial lung system that temporarily replaced the lungs’ functions. The system oxygenated the blood, removed carbon dioxide, and helped maintain a stable blood flow through the heart and body while the patient had no lungs at all. After two days, the patient’s condition improved and donor lungs became available. “Currently, people think if you get severe ARDS, you keep supporting them and ultimately the lungs will get better,” Dr Bharat said. “For the first time, biologically, we are giving molecular proof that some patients will need a double lung transplant, otherwise they will not survive.” More than two years on, the patient has returned to his daily life with good lung function. This bypass approach remains limited to highly specialised centres but Dr Bharat hopes over time, the concept will be adopted into more standardised devices that can keep patients alive while waiting for new lungs.