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Melissa Benoit, 33, was born with cystic fibrosis, a medical condition that causes mucus buildup and lung infections in patients. Benoit had become accustomed to going in and out of the hospital to treat her infections.
But in the past three years, she knew the infections had been getting worse, and they were also becoming far more regular.
In April 2016, Benoit was hospitalized because her body couldn’t weather the simultaneous effects of a lung infection and a bout of the flu. During one of her more violent coughing fits, Benoit ended up fracturing her ribs.
At the hospital, doctors realized that Benoit’s lungs were severely inflamed and were filling not just with mucus, but also with blood and pus. Her body and lungs had been pushed past capacity.
Her doctor, Dr. Niall Ferguson, said, The flu had “tipped her over the edge into respiratory failure. She got into a spiral from which her lungs were not going to recover. Her only hope of recovery was a lung transplant.”
Benoit’s body, however, couldn’t hold on.
The bacteria in her lungs had grown resistant to most antibiotics; her oxygen levels were too low and had to be supported by life support; and one by one, her organs began to fail.
She needed a lung transplant, immediately.
There were no lungs available for immediate transplant, but Benoit’s body could no longer sustain in this state.
Dr. Ferguson, desperate, decided to try an entirely new procedure, hoping it would give Benoit just enough time to weather the wait until her actual transplant. He and other doctors would remove Benoit’s infected lungs and support her breathing with life support machines alone.
The novel, nine-hour operation went miraculously smoothly. As soon as Benoit’s body was free of her infected lungs, things began to improve. Organs slowly regained their function.
Six days later, when the appropriate set of donor lungs was available to transplant into Benoit’s body, things, finally, went “perfect[ly].”
Benoit has been showing signs of improvement every day since the operation. She’s now able to walk without a walker or a cane and is looking forward to playing with her daughter once more.
