Prague doctors keep patient alive on artificial lung for record 143 days

Doctors at Prague’s General University Hospital kept a patient alive on an artificial extracorporeal lung for 143 days before she was able to receive a transplant, the Czech News Agency reported. The previous world record was 79 days.

The treatment saved the life of a 36-year-old with severe pulmonary hypertension.  The mother of two underwent surgery on June 18 and is still in intensive care.

Similar operations have been performed on only around 20 patients in the world in the last decade; this was the first time one was carried out in the Czech Republic.