COPD & Emphysema Support Group
COPD is a progressive disease characterized by airflow obstruction or limitation. Emphysema is characterized by loss of elasticity of the lung tissue, destruction of structures supporting the alveoli and of capillaries feeding the alveoli. Both have symptoms that include shortness of breath, among other respiratory troubles. If you are a COPD or Emphysema sufferer, join...
New hope for lung transplant patients, Lung perfusion
Susan Dunnett's emphysema made it nearly impossible for her to do anything.
It would take the 65-year-old up to 40 minutes to get up the steps and it as long as 20 minutes to get out of bed.
I just didn't have the breath for it, she says.
A doctor, Aldo Iacono, says she probably had about a year to six months to live.
Dr. Iacono knew the 40-year-smoker only had one hope for survival.
There is no medical therapy for treatment for emphysema when end stage-only treatment is a lung transplant, the doctor says.
In August, Dunnett became the first person in the country to receive a lung transplant through a new experimental treatment called lung perfusion at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
With this, the donor's lungs are placed on a machine that is able to reverse damage done at death that previously made many lungs unsuitable for transplant.
We are able to circulate through the lungs a proprietary solution that helps the lungs restore themselves, says Dr. Bartley Griffith. And we can look at the lung on the rig and say it's getting better.
Doctors say if this process saves four out of 10 lungs, it would nearly double the number of lungs available for the thousands of people waiting for a transplant.
Unfortunately some of our patients never get a chance to have a transplant, the more we can do as physicians and scientists to improve those odds the better, Griffith says.
It took Dunnett a couple months to recover from surgery. But now she feels great and doctors say her lungs are fully functional.
I feel like I never smoked a cigarette- never had trouble breathing I feel normal, Dunnett says. It's given me my life back.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/12/woman-received-lung-transplant-through-new-umd-procedure-70261.html
There is a vidoe on the site, you may be interested in watching too.
Love,
Holly
Susan Dunnett's emphysema made it nearly impossible for her to do anything.
It would take the 65-year-old up to 40 minutes to get up the steps and it as long as 20 minutes to get out of bed.
I just didn't have the breath for it, she says.
A doctor, Aldo Iacono, says she probably had about a year to six months to live.
Dr. Iacono knew the 40-year-smoker only had one hope for survival.
There is no medical therapy for treatment for emphysema when end stage-only treatment is a lung transplant, the doctor says.
In August, Dunnett became the first person in the country to receive a lung transplant through a new experimental treatment called lung perfusion at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
With this, the donor's lungs are placed on a machine that is able to reverse damage done at death that previously made many lungs unsuitable for transplant.
We are able to circulate through the lungs a proprietary solution that helps the lungs restore themselves, says Dr. Bartley Griffith. And we can look at the lung on the rig and say it's getting better.
Doctors say if this process saves four out of 10 lungs, it would nearly double the number of lungs available for the thousands of people waiting for a transplant.
Unfortunately some of our patients never get a chance to have a transplant, the more we can do as physicians and scientists to improve those odds the better, Griffith says.
It took Dunnett a couple months to recover from surgery. But now she feels great and doctors say her lungs are fully functional.
I feel like I never smoked a cigarette- never had trouble breathing I feel normal, Dunnett says. It's given me my life back.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/12/woman-received-lung-transplant-through-new-umd-procedure-70261.html
There is a vidoe on the site, you may be interested in watching too.
Love,
Holly
It gives hope to those who have no other option for survival and great that the procedure worked for Susan Dunnett.
A year ago the top lung docs at Temple Lung Center in Philly told me there was nothing they coud do for me, or offer me! This article gives me hope. False hope, maybe, but hope none the less!
I wish I could....they go by how bad your lungs are and how old you are.
I wish I was worse or younger which ever....but I miss the boat...
it is nice to see false hope Holly like someone before me said....just wish I was younger....
maybe it has to do where you live maybe if you can have transplant...maybe each state is different????
oh well not going to think about it.
bee
What they are doing will make it so the donor lungs can travel further distances to patients who qualify and are waiting for a lung transplant.
In most cases, lung transplants are only given to people who are in the end stage of their disease and with out the transplant they will not have long to live.
So this is a very good thing for a lot of people who are in need.
Love
Holly
Although some may feel it is false hope, It is very real hope for others, something that can and will help many who may otherwise not survive without the procedure.