At the wedding, Daniel's wife Kristina asked if I could speak with a friend of hers who has been listed for lung transplants for a year. Of course. Yesterday, she texted that her friend's lung collapsed on Monday and was in the hospital. She gave me her phone number and I called her.
What a woman. A single mom of a young child, she was very short of breath and still in pain from the collapsed lung. She was in the closest hospital to her home so they could inflate her lung but was expecting to be transferred to her university hospital today, where she was listed for a transplant.
I asked her diagnosis (Scleroderma) and what was the issue that had slowed down finding lungs. She was a small boned woman and the lungs that would fit her were going to children. It sounds strange but having this collapse lungs move the lung transplant process forward as she is now in the hospital so her number on the transplant list zooms to the top. It's actually good news. She started to cry with joy. I asked if she had a support system in place and learned that her sister was sitting at her bedside.
In California, there are no patients on ventilators waiting for lungs. Her chances of getting the next appropriate size and blood type of one or two lungs improved with her hospital stay. I didn't want to overtax her, told her phone me anytime night or day if she had any questions or needed help.
Later, I got another text from Kristina who told me that this young woman said that I gave her hope for the first time in a long time. I hope one or two lungs will be available to her soon.
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