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When 34-year-old Davey Bauer’s lungs stopped working, doctors turned to an unusual tool to help keep him alive: large breast implants.

Experts say it was an innovative solution to give Bauer’s body time to fight off a nasty infection so it could accept a lifesaving double lung transplant. It may be the first instance of a potential transplant practice that could save people with infectious disease who probably would not have survived just years ago.

Bauer’s case started in April, when he felt like he couldn’t catch his breath. The avid snow- and skateboarder had always been healthy. He kept in good shape and maintained a healthy weight working in landscaping in De Soto, Missouri. But he had long been a smoker, starting a pack-a-day cigarette habit when he was 21. He switched to vaping in 2014.

“I thought it was the healthier alternative,” Bauer said. ”But, in all honesty, I found it more addicting than cigarettes.”