A woman on the verge of dying due to a severe lung infection has been saved after doctors removed both her lungs for a week as she awaited a transplant. 

Surgeons at Toronto General Hospital worked for nine hours to remove 32-year-old Canadian Melissa Benoit's organs before connecting her heart to a small, portable artificial lung. 

The temporary procedure stabilised Mrs Benoit's condition and kept her alive until a pair of donor lungs could be found.   

Mrs Benoit, who was born with cystic fibrosis, was kept in an induced coma during her six days without lungs of her own. Although the procedure happened in April 2016, it was only made public this week. 

"This was bold and very challenging but Melissa was dying before our eyes," surgeon Shaf Keshavjee said, CBC Canada reported.

"We had to make a decision because Melissa was going to die that night. Melissa gave us the courage to go-ahead."

Mrs Benoit is the first patient to have ever undergone such a procedure, and doctors say they cannot be sure of her prognosis.

"I'm the first in the world that they've tried this on. I'll be the first in the world to see how long we live," Mrs Benoit said.

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