Breast Implants Used to Save Life of Man Who Vaped, Got the Flu, and Needed a Double Lung Transplant (Exclusive)

By using double-D implants to stabilize Davey Bauer’s heart during surgery, doctors gave the 34-year-old “a fighting chance”

Doctors at Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine performed a groundbreaking procedure where they used double-D breast implants to save the life of a man who vaped for years and caught the flu. His condition deteriorated so quickly, he was “at the end of the road,” Dr. Ankit Bharat, Chief of Thoracic Surgery and Director of the Canning Thoracic Institute, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Davey Bauer, 34, was in good health for years. He worked a physical job in landscaping, in DeSoto, Mo., and also enjoyed snowboarding and skateboarding.

He also vaped for nearly 10 years, something he tells PEOPLE “seemed like a healthier alternative” to smoking. Bauer says he went through a cartridge a day, which, according to one study from the National Library of Medicine, is roughly the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes.

But when Bauer — who says he never got a flu shot — caught the flu in early April, his condition deteriorated rapidly.

As his girlfriend of seven years, Susan Gore, tells PEOPLE exclusively, he went to urgent care and was told “Oh, you have a little bit of pneumonia…here's a Z-pack, and off you go." By the next day, she says, he couldn't move.

“Susan drove me to the ER” at a St. Louis hospital, Bauer tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I honestly barely remember walking into the ER. Then I woke up out here in Chicago with new lungs.”

While in the hospital, Bauer contracted a virulent strain of Pseudomonas, a bacteria the CDC says causes infections that “are becoming more difficult to treat because of increasing antibiotic resistance.”

And as Dr. Bharat explains to PEOPLE, “when the infection is so — 'fulminent' is the medical term — when it's so overwhelming and so bad, the body doesn't even have the opportunity to clear the infection. The bacteria eats away the lung and causes more and more pus creation.”

Related: Teen's Wisdom Tooth Removal Reveals Autoimmune Disease. Months Later, He Needs a Lung Transplant (Exclusive)

Bauer nearly died. He was transferred to Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine “as a last ditch effort,” Dr. Bharat tells PEOPLE, sharing that Bauer’s existing medical team told him they were "considering withdrawing care because he's so sick, his lungs are completely damaged — and nothing further can be done.”

When Bauer arrived at Northwestern, he went into cardiac arrest from the infection. “The hospital was correct [in] saying that he was at the end of the road,” Dr. Bharat says. 

But his team came up with an innovative way to save Bauer’s life — and keep his heart stable — after removing his “completely damaged” lungs to give his body a chance to fight the infection.

That’s where the breast implants came in.

“We had to get a crash course [in implants],” Dr. Bharat tells PEOPLE, sharing that they put in double-D implants, one on each side, to keep Bauer's heart structurally stable.

“The breast implant is a flashy thing, but to be honest with you, probably from a medical standpoint, was a minor part of the whole thing. Because it was mostly used to just temporarily stabilize the heart.”

They drained all of Bauer's blood and recreated a new circulatory system, which Bauer’s heart — now stabilized by the breast implants — continued to pump. Artificial lungs kept him breathing during the process.

“We had to come up with something very creative,” Dr. Bharat tells PEOPLE of the May 26 surgery. “This is the only way we could logically create a solution that may give the patient a fighting chance.”

And it worked, he says.

“It was kind of almost magical to see when we took out all of the old lungs…within a matter of hours, his body started to show signs of healing and recovery,” Dr. Bharat says. “His heart started to get stronger without all the bacteria.”

Dr. Bharat tells PEOPLE that Bauer was healing so well, they listed him for a transplant within "a couple of days" — but the perfect lungs had already been accepted by a recipient at another center.

"They actually agreed to redirect those organs to us, because of how sick [Bauer] was," he says, adding that the original recipient "got another offer in two days and was successfully transplanted. So everybody ended up winning from this."

And when Bauer was told he had been saved, essentially, by double-D implants, he tells PEOPLE, “I thought it was hilarious.”

“I was honestly jealous,” his girlfriend, Gore, quipped to PEOPLE.

These days, they’re still in Chicago, where Bauer is being treated on an outpatient basis, returning to the hospital for regular therapy and exams.

He's also speaking out against vaping, telling PEOPLE, "I feel like [it] contributed to this situation.”

“Hindsight is 2020,” Bauer says, adding, “I can see how stupid of a habit it was. Definitely,"

And as Dr. Bharat says, “In my personal opinion, vaping played a big part in how sick Davey got, because he’s young and otherwise healthy.”

“Lungs are designed to breathe clean air, they're not designed to inhale smoke,” he added.

Related: More Adults Should Be Screened for Lung Cancer Under New Guidelines from the American Cancer Society

Along with quitting vaping and getting his regular flu shots — “I'm all for it. It will make my life longer, so I'm 100% behind it,” he says — Bauer is now working on regaining the 40 lbs. he lost while sick.

As his recovery continues, Bauer tells PEOPLE, “I feel more like myself than I have since this all began. I'm walking around now, and starting to help out around the house.”

“I can't wait for him to help out around the house, too,” Gore says with a laugh, adding, “I guess new lungs are a good excuse.”

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