Lung Recipients

It's all very surreal to think that one day I will be receiving lungs from another person--a person who has died and has chosen to give me another chance at life in their absence.

Doctors assure me the surgeries usually go relatively well. It's the rejection and potential complications that cause concern. I have blogged about the statistics before. I have approximately a 50 percent chance of making it to five years on a lung transplant. I have a chance. I have hope. And, thanks to the power of the internet, I'm discovering inspiring stories of lung recipients who are on their 3rd, 17th, and 21st year. 

What some of these lung recipients are doing with their new lungs is amazing. There's Rowan Jimenez who got back into his music, biking, and rock-climbing; Alex Parker, a Jazz singer who wrote a song called Breathe In for the Ontario Lung Association; Charity Sunshine Tillemann Dick, who continues to wow audiences with her amazing singing and spirit; and Hélène Cambell who started Give2Live, a program to help transplant patients at the Toronto General Hospital.

Most of all, they have embraced life. They are powerful because they truly know what it is like to face death. And now that they can breathe, they are going to share with the world.