Table of contents:
- The story of a woman who lives with one lung
- How to live with one lung?
- Pneumonectomy, the surgical procedure to remove one lung and the reasons for it
Many things cause damage to human lungs, from infections, accidents, cancer, and various other diseases. This in some cases requires the patient to give up one lung for removal. And it turns out that humans can you know live with one lung.
The story of a woman who lives with one lung
That's the message from Amanda Kouri, a 24-year-old woman from Manhattan who has lung cancer. Kouri had to live with one lung because the cancer he suffered had gnawed at one lung and had to be removed.
Anyone diagnosed with lung cancer will be in for a shock. But in Kouri's case, he felt this was beyond his mind. Kouri said he was the type who lived a healthy lifestyle, from exercising regularly, consuming healthy foods, and avoiding smoking a hundred percent.
In 2008, he began to feel that he often had respiratory problems that developed into recurrent pneumonia. Six years later, 2014 Kouri experienced excruciating chest pain. Reported by Medical Daily Today, at that time Kouri had a mild heart attack caused by a tumor in his lungs.
Because of that incident he knew that there was cancer in his lung and luckily the shocking news came when he was still in its early stages. The cancer is still living next to his lung, it has not spread to other organs.
At the doctor's suggestion, Kaori decided to do an removal of one lung. Kaori did not need to do a lung transplant, because doctors said she could still live with one lung that was left.
"Can live a long, healthy life with only one lung," said Kaoru.
How to live with one lung?
A person can indeed live with only one beak.
One lung can be removed completely and a person can still live. One lung that is removed does not affect daily life nor does it shorten life expectancy.
By removing a lung that is diseased due to lung infection or cancer, it can make room for the other lung to expand.
The recovery period after performing lung removal may take weeks or even months. A person's overall activity thereafter will be limited for 1 to 2 months. After going through the recovery process, people with one lung can get about 70 percent of their previous lung function.
"A person with two lungs has many spare functions, so if one lung is removed, he can still function normally, without shortness of breath," said Loyola University Medical Center pulmonologist, Dr. Daniel Dilling as quoted from Science Daily.
However, people who live with one lung cannot exercise as hard as those who have complete lungs. According to Dilling, nowadays, doctors rarely decide to perform lung removal procedures in cases of infection.
But last century, the surgical procedure was to remove a small portion of the lung (lobectomy) and lung removal procedures (pneumonectomy) commonly done.
Pneumonectomy, the surgical procedure to remove one lung and the reasons for it
- Traumatic lung injury
- Tuberculosis (TB) of the lungs
- Fungal infection of the lungs
- Bronchiectasis
- Congenital lung disease
- Bronchial obstruction with crushed lung
- Pulmonary metastases
Lung removal is currently rarely performed because medical professionals have found other ways of treating it. For example, for tuberculosis patients, namely fast and aggressive treatment with antibiotics.
