GRAPHIC images have been plastered all over cigarette boxes in the hope it will deter people from smoking. However, it has done little to dissuade fellow smokers.
Perhaps the following viral image of a blackened lung will do the trick and make smokers reconsider their habit.
According to The Mirror, a doctor and his transplant team in Wuxi People’s Hospital in Jiangsu, China made a shocking discovery when they were harvesting lungs to be donated.
The lungs they were harvesting belonged to a 52-year-old man who had been a chain smoker for 30 years, who often smoked a pack a day. He was declared brain dead and wished to donate his organs.
The transplant team were shocked when they discovered his lungs were in such a darkened state. Although initial oxygenation index tests showed that the lung was fine, the doctors ultimately decided the lungs were just not suitable for donation.
Doctors said the lung was blackened by decades of tar and tobacco which leads to other issues such as lung calcification, bullous lung disease and pulmonary emphysema.
Dr Chen Jingyu of the Wuxi People’s Hospital warned the public via a post in Mandarin using the hashtag “jieyan” which translates to mean “quit smoking.”
“Many smokers in this country have lungs which look like this. Our team decided to reject these lungs for transplant. If you’re a heavy smoker, your lungs may not be accepted even if you choose to donate them after death. Look at these lungs – do you still have the courage to smoke?” he wrote.
Chen also explained that there are strict standards to accept lung donations. They wouldn’t rule out a smoker’s lungs as long as it meets certain conditions.
“These include lungs under 60 years of age in a patient who has only recently been declared medically dead; minor infections in the lungs and relatively clean chest X-rays are also acceptable. If the above conditions are met, we would consider transplanting the lungs,” he added.
The shocking video has spurred netizens to tag their friends to warn them about the dangers of smoking. Some have expressed shock after seeing the condition of the blackened lungs.
Hopefully, this incident will encourage others to reconsider giving up smoking or at least renew the encouragement to quit.
