(Nature) – The external, artificial-lung system could be used to treat other people who are critically unwell and awaiting transplants.

A 33-year-old man survived for 48 hours without his lungs, after a medical team replaced the organs with an external artificial-lung system that it developed to keep him alive until he could receive a double lung transplant.

There have been cases in which people have had their lungs removed and been connected to an external device to maintain oxygen levels. But, the devices used in these cases don’t count as artificial lungs because they do not maintain blood flow across the heart, meaning it cannot function normally, says Ankit Bharat, a thoracic surgeon at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, who helped to develop the artificial system. (Read More)