Doctors couldn't believe their eyes when they operate on a smoker's lungs

TW: Distressing images

When a body is approved for organ donation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the organs can be used. Doctors must first examine whether they are fit to give to another human being.

In 2019, this story of a man's lungs completely transformed by chain-smoking broke out. Photos of the state of his organ went viral on the internet.

Doctors shocked at the operating table

The Chinese man had decided to donate his organs when he died, which unfortunately happened when he was declared brain-dead at 52 years old. He had not undergone a CT scan and since oxygenation index tests came back showing that his lungs were able to provide the blood with enough oxygen, his lungs were approved to be donated to someone on the transplant list.

When the team of surgeons removed his lungs, however, they immediately noticed that they couldn’t be used under any circumstances. They were completely black as they belonged to someone who had been chain-smoking for over thirty years.

One of the surgeons in the team at Wuxi People’s Hospital, lung transplant surgeon Chen Jingyu, told the media source AsiaWire:

Many smokers in this country have lungs which look like this. If you’re a heavy smoker, your lungs may not be accepted even if you choose to donate them after death

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Smoking is a common problem in China

They obviously refused to accept this man’s lungs, despite the fact they had been freely donated. By sharing the photos on social media, they wanted to show smokers what their lungs would look like after years of intensive tobacco use.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 300 million smokers in China and more than half of adult males are smokers. They state:

In addition, over 700 million non-smokers in China, including about 180 million children, are exposed to second-hand smoke (SHS) at least once a day in a typical week. Exposure to SHS causes 100,000 deaths annually.

In fact, some smokers’ lungs may still be accepted in China because of this large population of tobacco consumers.

Sources used:

Twitter

World Health Organisation

Fox News: Transplant doctor rejects damaged donated lungs from chain-smoker