I agree with you all when you state that most people who go round saying they got rid of a certain bacteria actually just managed to produce a sputum sample that didn't contain any. The reason I can be more confident is that this culture came from BAL fluid. Could it be there? Possibly, but it's really hiding well if it escaped a bronchoscopy. To illustrate this, my culture in clinic was totally clean, yet the BAL fluid grew out aspergillus (small colonies between 200-700/ml).