WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Making sure donor lungs work

December 14, 2011

It's been a long journey for Patricia Kingsbury. She's been waiting six months for a lung transplant.

"Had a number of trips but had to turn around because they weren't viable," she said.

Running out of options, the former smoker turned to an experimental procedure at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The Human Ex-vivo Lung Profusion system or HELP allows doctors to determine if donor lungs will work before they're transplanted into a patient.

"Lungs that we have concerns and that we would otherwise turn down at assessment we have the opportunity to further test," explained Dr. Frank D'Ovidio of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.

A special fluid that is a blood substitute is circulated in the lungs, providing nutrients. Sensors inside the lungs tell doctors if the organs will work.

"How the lungs are ventilating, what are the pressures, what are the pressures in the airways, how the lungs are inflating," D'Ovidio said.

Fewer than 2,000 transplants are performed in the U.S. each year because there aren't many donor organs available.

Kingsbury is one of about 90 patients taking part in the study.

"I just can't believe these lungs are in me and I can breathe like a normal person... because for years, I haven't," she said.

She hopes this technique will be approved so it can save other lives.

Trials are also being done in Maryland, Massachusetts and Colorado, and more sites may be added.