Double-D breast implants save life of man who damaged lungs by vaping
A double-D breast implant has saved the life of an American man who needed a lung transplant after vaping for a decade.
Surgeons at Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine used the implants to hold Davey Bauer’s heart in place while he was kept alive with an artificial lung for two days.
Mr Bauer, 34, from Missouri, had vaped for nearly a decade, believing it was a healthy alternative to smoking.
“Vaping felt better, and I thought it was the healthier alternative, but in all honesty, I found it more addicting than cigarettes,” he said.
He appeared to be in good physical health, working as a landscaper and enjoying energetic pursuits like snowboarding.
But in April, he felt short of breath and was initially diagnosed with flu, and then developed an antibiotic-resistant infection. His condition worsened and doctors decided a double lung transplant was his only chance of survival.
“Davey’s lungs were so heavily infected that they started to liquefy. If you looked at his X-ray, there was nothing left – the lungs were completely filled with pus,” said Rade Tomic, director of Northwestern’s transplant programme.
“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.
“This was unchartered territory for us, but our team knew if we couldn’t help Davey, no one else could.”
Surgeons created an artificial lung to help keep blood flowing, while his real lungs were removed. But the challenge was to prevent his heart from collapsing inside his chest.
The solution was to use breast implants, Ankit Bharat, the head director of the Canning Thoracic Institute said.
“One of our plastic surgeons was very gracious to give us a rapid-fire course on the different types, shapes and sizes of breast implants, so we picked out a couple of options and some of them were easier than others to mould inside Davey’s chest, with the DD option being the best fit,” he said.
“I never imagined we’d be using DD breast implants to help bridge a patient to lung transplantation, but our team is known for taking on the most difficult cases and thinking outside the box to save lives.”
The implants remained in place for two days until the new lungs were transplanted. Mr Davey remained in intensive care until the end of September.
“Still to this day, I can’t believe Davey lived without any lungs. He was breathing, blood pumping, without lungs,” said Mr Davey’s girlfriend, Susan Gore. “While we waited inside his hospital room at Northwestern, I would take a breath in and say, ‘one breath for me and one for Davey’.
“It’s hard to wrap my mind around it, and I’m still in awe that Davey was able to do this – it truly shows his strength.”
Dr Bharat said the procedure was transformative, showing that patients can be kept alive even after their lungs have been removed.
As for Mr Bauer, he saw the funny side of being fitted with breast implants.
“I plan to get a T-shirt made that says ‘DD Davey’ on it and change all my gaming profiles.”
