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Once on ECMO, he stabilized. “But then the question was, ‘how are we ever going to get this youth off these very aggressive and invasive forms of life support,” Bosma said.

“Is he going to need new lungs?”

She sat down with his family. “They were aware of how serious this was. They were aware that he could die. And I think it was all rather overwhelming.

“They handled everything extremely well, under the circumstances. They were willing, obviously, for their loved one to have every opportunity to be given to survive, even if that included needing a lung transplant,” she said. “But they were also aware that he was at high risk of dying.”

Twenty-one days after he was admitted to hospital, the teen was transferred on ECMO to a transplant centre.

Photo by Lawson Health Research Institute

There, doctors began treating him with higher doses of steroids. He slowly improved over the next two weeks. He was weaned from the ECMO and ventilator, his tracheostomy (a tube in his neck) was removed and he was sent home after a total of 47 days in hospital.

“As a physician and as a scientist and as a mother, you never want to see a previously healthy kid end up on life support,” Bosma said. “This could have been any kid.’

The youth has likely suffered lasting damage to his airways. “He’s lost a lot of his lung function,” said Stanbrook, who wasn’t involved in the case but who has expertise in the disease. It would be similar to someone with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who smoked for years, and lost half his lung function.