Editor’s note: This story includes graphic video of the artificial lung system at the end. Surgeons removed a man’s irreparably damaged lungs and kept him alive for 48 hours with artificial lungs until he could get a transplant. So Bharat and colleagues removed the diseased lungs and hooked the man to the artificial lung the team devised. Lung is normal.”Lung support The artificial lung system devised by researchers at Northwestern University mimics the lungs’ role in blood circulation. In 2023, surgeons used the artificial lung in a person for the first time.