Twenty-percent of people needing a lung transplant will die waiting for one.

Unlike damaged kidneys or hearts, doctors say it is very difficult to keep injured lungs working long enough to get a transplant.

Yen Tran is lucky to be alive.

Last December she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension which constricts vessels that lead to the lungs, making it nearly impossible for the heart to get oxygen-rich blood to the lungs.

She was just 20 years old, had three kids and was planning her own funeral.

Yen was in the ICU waiting for a new lung when her heart stopped.

Doctors kept Yen alive with chest compressions and this new artificial lung called the Novalung.

She was the first person in North America to get it.

"It doesn't require the use of a mechanical pump. That is the truly unique thing about that," says Dr. Tom Waddell of Toronto General Hospital.

The patient's own heart pumps blood up a tube and into an oxygenator.

There, the blood is filled with oxygen and returned to the body.

The Novalung bought Yen time until a donor lung was found.

Now instead of planning for her funeral, Yen is planning for her future.

In addition to Canada and Germany, the Novalung is also being used to save the lives of American soldiers in Iraq.