Now to a remarkable story a new lease on life for a 26-year-old woman after her third double lung transplant this is a procedure that’s so rare only 15 of them have been done in the US by the way 13 of them right back in our backyard Health reporter Grace habba sat down
With her as she’s on the road to recovery one month Post stop going through her daily lung function tests just comes lay down for a little bit with the support of her dog Millie inside what she says is a lucky Durham Airbnb I met one girl who had a
Third transplant here at Duke she was the third PL patient I believe and I found out that she would stayed in this exact place so Taylor Stevenson recalled waking up after a double lung transplant third times a that’s right for the third time what was that first breath
Like scary the Oklahoma native born with cystic fibrosis received her first transplant in 2015 I went into rejection in 2019 in 2020 she had her second transplant I did several medication regimens that they used to stop rejection but they didn’t work and by her 26th birthday this past October she
Was in rejection again they were like there’s no other way to say this but you need another transplant a team of doctors at Duke agreed to take her case her surgery last month made her the 13th patient to have the procedure through the hospital system for Taylor she was
Checking all the boxes of what we thought a successful redo or third time transplant we call a threo she could do well with Dr John Reynolds is one of Taylor’s doctors he says for a long time someone like Taylor wouldn’t have been expected to live into their 30s but in
The case of redo transplants new lungs have the potential to extend life expectancy by decades what we would want folks to to be aware of is that um this option is out there and to have someone review their records and see if they’re a candidate moving forward Physical
Therapy will be critical to helping Taylor’s Body accept the new set of lungs as she looks toward the months ahead Taylor says this time feels different I’ve been telling myself the whole time like third times the charm Grace Haba W news wow Taylor says her
First piece of Good News by the way came on Valentine’s Day when she learned her first round of tests since leaving the hospital came back clear of rejection
