"I could breathe right away," Germantown woman has new life after double lung transplant

GERMANTOWN -- For 10 years, Lynn Carey could never take a deep breath. Her chest hurt and her jaw ached. She couldn't walk and talk at the same time. Sometimes, she couldn't breathe at all.

Carey had pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that required she breathe through an oxygen tank 24 hours a day.  She could only take shallow breaths because of bad scarring in her lung tissue.  Over time, the oxygen tanks became her best friend, and worst enemy.

"I couldn't just go anywhere. I had to plan oxygen," says Carey.

Dr. George Haasler is a transplant surgeon at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Haasler says Carey had pulmonary hypertension, and only 17 percent of the oxygen she inhaled was being absorbed into her blood.

"For day-to-day life, it is absolutely miserable because people have more and more difficulty with their daily tasks," says Dr. Haasler.

Carey's difficulty breathing strained her heart to the point it started to fail. As her body grew tired, her muscles deteriorated, and she couldn't walk.

After a decade on oxygen, Carey finally went on the transplant list in February. In May, she got a phone call from Froedtert Hospital that changed her life. Donor lungs were available.

Dr. Haasler scrubbed in for the double lung transplant. During the eight hour surgery, he sutured in one of the donor's lungs and then the other. It was a meticulous process, with each suture requiring the reattachment of three major structures.

"The artery leading into the lungs, the veins leading back and the wind pipe segment," says Dr. Haasler.

Dr. Haasler says the chance of survival one to two years after a double lung transplant is now 90 to 100 percent. At the four to five year mark, the survival rate is 70 percent.

"These are all people who otherwise would have been likely to die," said Dr. Haasler.

Waking up from surgery, Carey says the relief came instantly.

"I could breathe right away. I couldn't believe it. I'm like, 'oh my gosh!' And I still feel that way every morning," says Carey.

Carey's muscles had become so weak, it took weeks to build up her strength and get her walking again. Her life since has been a transformation. She finds simple happiness in taking her dog on long walks.

Carey now wears a silver bracelet in honor of the young donor who granted her new life.  After years of pulling an oxygen tank behind her, she now has only one small, travel tank left. She keeps it tucked away in the back of her closet. She hasn't need it.

Dr. Haasler says pulmonary hypertension is often misdiagnosed for years, as people continue to suffer from difficulty breathing.  He says survivors of double lung transplants have gone on to run marathons, while others prefer quieter lives.