Welcome to Duke Lung Transplant Friends
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Diane Detmer
Website designed, published and maintained by Diane Detmer
Contact Webmaster: dinki@charter.net
Diane Detmer
Website designed, published and maintained by Diane Detmer
Contact Webmaster: dinki@charter.net
In the winter of 1992 I was diagnosed with a very rare disease. Its name was Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH).
Unfortunately even though it was a rare disease it was no stranger to me or my family. My mother and cousin both died from it and my sister was already diagnosed in 1979 with it. Now ,it was not just PPH now it was Familiar Primary Pulmonary Hypertension. Which means it is hereditary in my family.
Six months after I was diagnosed there was an experimental medicine that I was lucky enough to be put on in the study program for it. Unfortunately after 3 months it no longer was helping me. The only options I had were to either die from PPH or get a double lung transplant.
I was put on the transplant list in May of 1993. As time went on I got sicker and sicker. I was now on oxygen 24/7. By the time May of 1994 came I new I did not have a lot of time left. On May 25,1994 at 2am I got the call that there was a donor. By 8pm that night I had my donor lungs keeping me alive. They have given me life for the past 13 years and 11 months.
Everyday I think about my donor and what a selfless act their family did in a time of sadness.
Unfortunately even though it was a rare disease it was no stranger to me or my family. My mother and cousin both died from it and my sister was already diagnosed in 1979 with it. Now ,it was not just PPH now it was Familiar Primary Pulmonary Hypertension. Which means it is hereditary in my family.
Six months after I was diagnosed there was an experimental medicine that I was lucky enough to be put on in the study program for it. Unfortunately after 3 months it no longer was helping me. The only options I had were to either die from PPH or get a double lung transplant.
I was put on the transplant list in May of 1993. As time went on I got sicker and sicker. I was now on oxygen 24/7. By the time May of 1994 came I new I did not have a lot of time left. On May 25,1994 at 2am I got the call that there was a donor. By 8pm that night I had my donor lungs keeping me alive. They have given me life for the past 13 years and 11 months.
Everyday I think about my donor and what a selfless act their family did in a time of sadness.
Duke Lung Transplant Friends Stories
Duke Lung Transplant Friends Stories
Gail Csizmar