Doctors save Burlington mom’s life by removing her lungs

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A Burlington woman’s life was saved by a radical procedure that left her without lungs for six days.

In a “bold and very challenging move” surgeons at Toronto General Hospital removed Melissa Benoit’s severely infected lungs to buy her time to receive a life-saving lung transplant.

Benoit was born with Cystic Fibrosis and a recent bout of the flu had left her gasping for air and with coughing fits so severe she had cracked her ribs.

“This was bold and very challenging, but Melissa was dying before our eyes,” said Dr. Shaf Keshavjee in a news release. Dr. Keshavjee is Surgeon-in-Chief, Sprott Department of Surgery at UHN, and one of three thoracic surgeons who operated together on Melissa. “We had to make a decision because Melissa was going to die that night.”

With permission from Benoit’s family, a team of 13 operating room staff removed her lungs one at a time, in a nine-hour long procedure believed to be the first of its kind in the world. “Technically, it was difficult to get them out of her chest,” said Dr. Keshavjee, adding that her lungs were as hard as a football.

Within hours of the procedure, Benoit’s condition improved dramatically and she was hooked up to advanced life support technology that included a small portable artificial lung that was connected by arteries and veins to her heart.

Six days later, a pair of donor lungs became available and she received the transplant in late April 2016.

“The transplant procedure was not complicated because half of it was done already,” said Dr. Cypel. “Her new lungs functioned beautifully and inflated easily. Perfect.”

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Benoit thanked the doctors saying they pulled her back from the dead. “I get to be home and it is the best feeling in the world.”