Life Without Lungs: How One Woman Overcame the Odds
Removal of the lungs meant removal of the infection
Even though there weren’t any organ lungs currently available, Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, surgeon-in-chief at University Health Network, was confident that both lungs could be safely removed if Melissa was put back on the Extracorporeal Lung Support machine along with another device. After all, it made sense scientifically. Remove the source of the infection (her lungs in this case) and the infection will go away. As Dr. Keshavjee said, “Certainly, in historical times, surgery was used for treatment of severe infections,” although strong antibiotics are typically used today to treat severe infections.
