Transplanted Daughter Wishes Mother Could Have Same Gift of Life
- Filed under: Health News
- Date: Jul 16,2008
A Colorado woman breathes easier in the mile high city of Denver, less than a year after receiving a life-saving lung transplant from an incurable lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis (PF). She only wishes her mother, who suffers from the same disease, could receive the same gift of life.
Terry DeLeon, 56, was diagnosed with PF just a month after her mother, Laura Sides, was diagnosed in late 2005. DeLeon had been helping her mother deal with her illness and news that the disease was terminal when she started to notice that she was experiencing the same symptoms as her mother — a dry cough and shortness of breath.
- Lung
According to the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF), www.coalitionforpf.org, pulmonary fibrosis claims 40,000 lives a year, the same as breast cancer. Yet, the disease is largely unknown and receives little federal funding for research. There is currently no FDA approved treatment, no known cause and no cure for PF. The average life expectancy from diagnosis is less than three years.
A high resolution computer tomography (HRCT) scan revealed what DeLeon feared. She, too, suffered from pulmonary fibrosis. It is believed that 15 percent of PF cases are genetic in origin. Sides lost her sister, a half-sister and a half-brother to PF.
DeLeon’s health quickly deteriorated, much faster than her mother’s condition. Within months of her diagnosis, she was completely oxygen dependent and was soon placed on a lung transplant list. Lung transplantation is the only known way to survive PF; however, only a small minority are candidates for transplant.
Just as she was prepared to die from the disease, DeLeon received her lung transplant on August 4, 2007.
DeLeon says she feels a little guilty about being the one who was transplanted. “My mom doesn’t have the opportunity to get a lung because of her age and other health conditions and that makes me feel pretty bad. I don’t know how else to describe it. I wish I could do the same for her that was done for me. It is so humbling.”
But Sides believes her daughter should have the second chance at life. “To see her suffer was the worse part for me. She suffered so much more than I have. When her breathing went, it was hard for me to see that because I know what it is like and how hard it is,” she said. “My suffering is nothing compared to hers. It is more important for her to get what she needs. I have put up with knowing what this disease does and knowing that I am going to die anyway from it. But she has a chance. It didn’t bother me nearly as much as it bothered her.”
DeLeon’s condition has improved dramatically since her transplant, though it has not been without minor setbacks. “It took me about six months before I really felt like getting up and getting around and doing normal lifestyle activities. I gradually got to where I could stand long enough to do the dishes. I purposely didn’t take it too fast. I am the type of person that will over do it if I am not careful,” she said.
She’s happy, DeLeon says, that she can again do some of the things that PF took away from her. “One day, I had been listening to my mp3 player and I could sing along with it. I just bawled. That was something I thought I had lost.”
Source: Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis