Merv Sheppard (single-lung transplant April 20/02) and Sharon Smith (double-lung transplant May 13, 2005). Sharon is telling Merv that the open thoracic surgery to do a lung biopsy back in St. John, NB prior to her transplant was more stressful and painful than the lung transplant itself. Merv asked her why she wasn't a candidate for a video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) procedure such as he had. In most VATS procedures, surgeons operate through 2 to 4 tiny openings between the ribs while viewing the patient's internal organs on a television monitor. Each opening is less than one inch in diameter, whereas 6- to 10-inch incisions are not uncommon in open thoracic surgery.