Doctors use BREAST IMPLANTS to save Missouri man, 34, who needed double lung transplant when killer vaping habit caused his organs to shut down

A Missouri man who suffered lung failure after a decade of vaping has survived — thanks to a temporary pair of double-D breast implants.

Davey Bauer, 34, switched from smoking to vaping in 2014 because he thought it was “the healthier alternative,” but later found it “more addictive than cigarettes.”

His lungs failed in April, which doctors blamed on his one-day habit, after he came down with the flu and an antibiotic-resistant co-morbid lung infection.

Mr. Bauer’s lungs were so severely damaged that doctors in St. Louis decided his best hope was a double lung transplant.

He was transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he quickly went into cardiac arrest as a result of the infection.

Mr. Bauer’s surgeon, Dr. Ankit Bharat, director of the Canning Thoracic Institute at Northwestern, said his patient was out of time for a transplant at that point.

In a “last ditch effort,” the team removed Mr. Bauer’s lungs and fitted him with a temporary pair of double-D breast implants to hold his heart in place.

“Someone who is actively dying and was as sick as David was, generally they won’t have an option for a transplant, and generally they just die,” Dr. Bharat told me. CNN. “We had to come up with a strategy to do something we’ve never done before.”

This was because Dr. Bharat’s team had to figure out how to keep the blood flowing while they waited for the infection to clear and a pair of donor lungs to arrive.

The heart and lungs work together because the circulatory system, which consists of the heart and blood vessels, delivers blood to the lungs.

Without a pair of lungs, there is no path for the blood to travel through.

The team created artificial channels with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO), which pumps blood outside the body, sends it through devices that remove oxygen and carbon dioxide, and pumps it back into the body.

To keep blood flowing through Mr. Bauer’s body, however, doctors had to figure out how to keep the heart in place.

The breast implants managed to hold the heart at bay until a pair of donor lungs became available the next day.

Mr. Bauer’s breast implants were then replaced with a new set of lungs.

Dr. Bharat said Mr. Bauer “is on track for a full recovery.” According to his GoFundMe page, he was able to breathe completely on his own with the new lungs in June.

He has since been transferred to a rehab facility in Chicago, where he and his girlfriend Susan will stay for the next eighteen months.

Bauer had switched from vaping to cigarettes because he thought it was healthier, but later found it “more addictive than cigarettes,” he told CNN. He smoked one cartridge a day, which in terms of nicotine content corresponds to a pack of cigarettes.

“In my personal opinion, vaping played a huge role in how sick Davey became because he is otherwise young and healthy,” Dr. Bharat said.

‘Lungs are designed to breathe clean air. They are not designed for smoke inhalation.”

While e-cigarettes are generally thought to be safer than regular cigarettes, mounting evidence shows that vaping is still extremely harmful.

Earlier this year, the American Heart Association (AHA) warned that the cocktail of nicotine, thickeners, solvents and flavorings in vape devices pose greater risks to heart health than smoking cigarettes.

Long-term exposure to diacetyl and acetylpropionyl, two flavoring chemicals, has been linked to shortness of breath, chronic cough, asthma and congested airways.

Experts have also warned against second-hand vaping.

Scientists from universities in Virginia and North Carolina reported that when e-cigarette users puffed in their cars for less than 10 minutes, the air around them became loaded with potentially toxic particles known specifically as PM2.5 (which indicates a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller).

PM2.5 can be generated from natural and man-made sources, such as the combustion of fossil fuels. When inhaled, the substance enters the lungs and irritates the entire respiratory system, possibly causing or aggravating asthma, bronchitis and severe wheezing.

The matter is so small that it can enter the bloodstream, leading to system-wide inflammation that increases risk to cardiovascular health.

Vapes without nicotine can also lead to “e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated with lung injury,” or EVALI.

The exact cause of the injury is still not fully understood, but researchers have since focused on the compound vitamin E acetate, which is often used as a thickener in illegal cannabis vape devices.

There is no test to determine if someone has EVALI, so the diagnosis is based on symptoms, including shortness of breath, fever, chills, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, fast heart rate and chest pain, according to the American Pulmonary Association (ALA).

EVALI has caused a number of distressing health problems. A 34-year-old Ohio woman, who consumed about eight cartridges of vaping liquid every week, the equivalent of 50 cigarettes per day, was on life support within 24 hours of going to the emergency room for respiratory problems.

In another terrifying case, a 20-year-old woman from Britain named Abby Flynn developed a rare lung condition called ‘popcorn lung’ that doctors warned could have left her dependent on an oxygen machine before the age of 30.

Federal data shows that about 14 percent (more than 2.5 million) of U.S. youth in sixth through twelfth grade vape, while another survey shows that 17 million U.S. adults vape. That compares to only one in ten tobacco smokers.