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In another display of the miracle of modern science, a woman was recently kept alive for six days after doctors removed her diseased lungs and she awaited a donor. She was kept alive using a small artificial lung, and became the first person to ever undergo such an operation.

The lucky lady is Melissa Benoit, a nurse from Canada. She developed severe complications from her cystic fibrosis and when initially hospitalized, she was only given hours to live. Doctors then decided that it was time to do or die and gave the option for this novel procedure.

“I had to live on life support with no lungs for six days while I awaited suitable donor lungs. There was a lot of excitement when I came to, that, wow, this actually worked and we saved her,” says Benoit.

Miracles are no longer relegated to the mystical. Medical technology has advanced far beyond the imaginations of medical professionals from just a few decades past. These advances are giving hope to people who previously may not have had reason to. Benoit said she "thought it was a piece of science fiction" when doctors told her she lived without lungs. "They pulled me back from the dead."


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