Lance Morales (left) and Johnathan Holman (right) with patient and coach, Robert Trevino (center)
very unusual to have a case this severe,”
Dr. Reznik says. “We found only one
other case like this in the medical
literature, where a patient required
multiple operations and experienced this
level of involvement with lung function
totally compromised.”
It took more than eight hours for the two
cardiothoracic surgeons—and a skilled
multispecialty team—to remove the ninepound mass. In its place was a flattened
piece of lung no more than three
millimeters thick. “Normally at this
point in an operation where you have
removed something from someone’s chest,
the hard part is over,” says Dr. Smythe.
“But in this operation, the hard part
was still ahead.” As the anesthesiologist
pumped air into the pancaked lung, the
surgery team anxiously watched. “If it
didn’t expand, then the operation would
have pretty much been for naught,” Dr.
Reznik says.
Over the next 10 minutes, the flattened
left lung completely expanded. “Those
few minutes were one of the biggest
wins that I’ve experienced in general
thoracic surgeries,” he says. “It was a great
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