Michele Hutchinson

Story of Successful Lung Transplant

It is amazing to be able to breathe without aid of oxygen and without cough or wheeze. I cannot even put into words how incredible it feels and how fortunate I am to have received this gift of donor lungs.

The Surgery was performed at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center by Dr’s. Bremner and Nigro also assisting post surgery was Dr. Smith. My post transplant care is overseen by the Heart and Lung Institute (St. Joes) Dr’s Walia and Hodges are taking great care of me.

Everyone at St. Joe’s Hospital was wonderful and it showed that they had my best interests at heart. Everyone was very excited to be part of the transplant process and eager to have me do as well as I possibly could with it.

Before the surgery even began Dr. Bremner did a bronchoscopy and removed a half cup of puss / mucous from my lungs. During the surgery he removed an additional 1.5 cups from one lung. He told my Husband that he has no idea how I was able to breathe at all.

The surgery took place on Saturday 10-20-07 at 06:30 am. They did not wake me up until sometime on Monday so that I could rest. When I woke up I had an oxygen mask on and Dr. Walia informed me that the surgery is over and all went well. At that point I had no idea it was Monday and thought it was Saturday afternoon… it was not until much later that I found out that I had been in a drug induced sleep. I am happy that they decided to do this and chose not to wake me up until I was extubated .

I only had one small bump while in the hospital with a small air leak in my upper left lobe. The lung had not fully expanded and was slightly leaking air which was corrected within two days by simply adding suction to the chest drain tube to allow the lung to expand and touch the chest cavity to seal the leak… I tell ya it is amazing what can be done with modern science and an incredible team of doctors and surgeons.

Michele Hutchinson