That smoking affects humans’ health a great deal is something every smoker is very well aware of but they still continue to do so.
Despite the anti-smoking campaigns that they see on TV and in newspapers every day, smokers don’t have it easy to break off their addiction.
But a video that emerged recently and was labeled by many as “the best anti-smoking ad ever” left viewers in shock and horror. It shows the lungs of a life-long smoker and they are far away of what healthy and pink lungs look like. Instead, these lungs are completely black and all covered in tar.
The man whose lungs were harvested during the procedure had signed up to be a donor and now that he passed away at the age of 52 someone else was about to receive his lungs.
Unfortunately, they were damaged to the extent that they couldn’t be transplanted.
Doctor Chen Jingyu from the Wuxi People’s Hospital in Juangsu, China, posted the video with the hashtag “jieyan” which means quit smoking.
He also explained that after the donor was declared brain death tests were done which showed the lungs were in good shape. No one expected to see such damaged and inflamed organ whatsoever.
The donor was a heavy smoker who smoked a pack of cigarettes each day for 30 years.
UNILAND shared the doctor’s post which he initially uploaded to AsiaWire with the following caption:
“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?”
The number of Chinese people who smoke is roughly one quarter of the population over 15 years old.
However, because the number of people who are in need of lungs is huge, doctors are not in a position to turn down each smoker’s organs.
“We Chinese love smoking. It would be impractical to say that we wouldn’t accept the lungs of all smokers, but there are strict standards,” said Dr. Chen.
“…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 claimed.