On this shocking footage, you can see the blackened lungs of a chain smoker who smoked a pack of cigarettes per day for 30 years.
Rather than a healthy pinkish color, the lungs are charcoal and inflamed from 3 decades of tobacco clogging them up.
The lungs of the 52-year-old man who died as a result of several lung diseases were extracted by doctors from Wuxi People’s Hospital in China.
The team recorded a video of the lungs which was viewed more than 25 million times on social media. Some commented that it’s the ‘best antismoking ad ever’.
The Disturbing Eye-Opening Video
The shocking video was titled ‘Do you have the courage to smoke?’ and has definitely stirred the internet.
The patient was an organ donor; however, the surgeons were well aware that they couldn’t make use of the patients’ lungs.
Dr. Chen who’s a lung transplant surgeon and VP of the hospital lead the surgery. After the harvest of the organs, they knew they couldn’t use them-these were now black lungs!
The hospital can use lungs from people younger than 60 who’ve recently died and had minor lung infections and had relatively clean X-rays. When these conditions are met, the lungs can be used for transplantation. In this case, this wasn’t possible.
The Man Had Lung Pulmonary Emphysema
According to Peter Openshaw, professor from the National Heart and Lung Institute, this man had lung pulmonary emphysema. This chronic disease causes lung inflammation and expansion and it’s characterized by shortness of breath.
Plus, the doctors may have also inflated them with fluid or air before the harvest. So, this made them look much bigger than normal deflated lungs postmortem look, explained the professor.
Dr. Chen wrote the following when he uploaded the video:
‘A lot of smokers in this country have black lungs like this. Our team decided to reject them for transplant.
If you’re a heavy smoker, your lungs may not be accepted even if you choose to donate them after you die. Look at these lungs- do you still have the courage to smoke?’
Smoking: One of the Lead Causes of Death?
Smoking is among the major preventable reasons for cancer and it’s a habit that produces chemicals which can trigger 15 distinct forms of the illness.
Current data shows that it’s also the reason for 70 percent of lung cancers.
Smoking is highly addictive because of the nicotine’s effect on the body. Unfortunately, this makes it even more difficult to quit because the body’s become addicted to it.
Sadly, smoking takes the lives of 1.2 million individuals yearly and puts smokers at higher risk of lung cancer and heart attack.
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