Primary Arterial Hypertension News - Menu Barrington native needs double lung transplant
Barrington native Wendy Foley needs a double lung transplant.
BARRINGTON - May 11, 2005 - Two years ago, climbing a flight of stairs was a simple task for Barrington native Wendy Foley. It has now become a tiring exercise. In September of 2003, Ms. Foley was five months pregnant and visited her doctor after experiencing shortness of breath. What followed was immediate hospitalization and an unexpected diagnosis: primary pulmonary hypertension. The disease is rare and of unknown origin. Essentially it causes the pulmonary arteries in the lungs to become stiff, causing the heart to work harder to pump blood. Ms. Foley was unprepared for the way her life changed so dramatically, and saddened by the subsequent loss of her unborn child. Now she is struggling to do all she can to live to see her 2-year-old daughter, Tessa, grow up. Ms. Foley is waiting for a double lung transplant to prevent any more damage to her heart and improve her chances for beating the sickness. "When we first got told, I think everything happened so fast, I'm still absorbing it all. They told my husband, Timothy, 'she's very sick,' and they weren't expecting me to make it through that weekend. They said, 'You've lost your unborn child and you can't have any more children.' " Until six months ago, a medication designed to ease the pressure on the arteries in her lungs and heart was helping Ms. Foley, but the condition worsened. She now requires oxygen at night. Her doctor has recommended the transplant within the next six months, to prevent any further damage to the heart, which is being caused by the high pressure. "The sooner they do it, the better. It could be an hour, it could be a year or two. You get put on a waiting list. Unfortunately, it depends on someone else's tragedy. That's kind of a very difficult thing to swallow." Ms. Foley is on the waiting list at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and at the Cleveland Center in Ohio. "I'm taking things one step at a time. I'm trying to remain optimistic. Things are obviously very scary for me. I guess I just can't believe this is happening to me; I was healthy through high school and college." The disease has taken away the simple things. Any sort of a trip — from going to the supermarket to picking up her daughter from daycare — demands careful planning. She must be equipped with her hip pack of medication and have back-ups with her just in case. She cannot allow the medication to lapse even for a few minutes. Potentially, it could be fatal to disconnect the pump, which supplies a constant stream of medication into her chest. "The tubing is always there, it's just a constant reminder. We also have to mix our own medication. Every night after I put my daughter to bed I have to mix it. You can never not think about it. My husband and I get very stressed. You constantly have to have a backup kit of medication." The medication, Flolan, has only been around for about 10 years. It gets pumped directly into the right side of Ms. Foley's heart to trigger dilation in the pulmonary artery. "It's designed to help the artery be a little less stiff so the blood can get through a little easier," she said. Work related The disease has taken away her career — she worked as a nurse at Barrington Pediatrics and Butler Hospital in the children's unit until the disease made that impossible. "I was working up until the beginning of that September, and then it got worse. It's hard not to be able to work. I'm not sure, because of the germs and the immuno suppressant, if I'll be able to work even after the transplant," Ms. Foley said. Her daughter, Tessa, is too young to understand fully. Ms. Foley says they tell her truthfully what is happening, geared to a 2-year-old's understanding. She understands enough to say, "Mommy's sick." Her family has rallied around her. Her husband is a nurse who works at Rhode Island Hospital. Born in Barrington, where she lived until moving to Bristol seven years ago, she has many supportive relatives close by — aunts and uncles and cousins, and her parents still live in Barrington. Her mother, Gwen Groves, is an integral part of the family support system. 'She's a remarkably strong, young lady," Ms. Groves said. Finding a match for a double lung transplant is not easy. A match must be made for both blood type and for body size. Hopefully, with a transplant, the primary pulmonary hypertension will be gone, but the trade-off is years of immuno-suppressant medications so the new lung won't be rejected. While there are many difficulties involved, the procedure has a good chance of success. "A double lung transplant is so rare they kind of put people in that category that have a heart transplant and a double lung transplant. After five years, 60 to 70 percent of the patients are still alive," Ms. Foley said. The diagnosis Primary pulmonary hypertension is a clinical syndrome where the blood flow that leaves the right side of the heart faces an increased resistance (pressure). Primary pulmonary hypertension occurs in about 8 out of 100,000 people. Women between the ages of 20 and 40 are most at risk. In primary pulmonary hypertension, the blood vessels of the lungs have an increased amount of muscle in the walls. This causes a higher resistance in the lungs. The right ventricle then has to work harder to pump blood out to the lungs. The right ventricle will enlarge and thicken in response to this extra work. With time, the extra work placed on the right side of the heart can cause it to fail. The cost for life Barrington native and Bristol resident Wendy Foley needs a double lung transplant — an operation that will cost around $500,000. While insurance will cover much of the cost, there will still be a large portion the family will need to supply. Anyone who would like to help the family may do so by writing a check to NTAF (Northeast Lung Transplant Fund.) * Send the check to: NTAF: 3475 West Chester Pike, Suite 230, Newtown Square, PA, 19073. Please print "in honor of Wendy Foley," in the memo section of the check so any contribution will be credited to her account. * NTAF will send an acknowledgment for any contributions of $250 or more, or if requested by the contributor of a lesser amount. * Contributions may also be made online at a secure site: www.transplantfund.org. The campaign is administered by the National Transplant Assistance Fund, a nonprofit organization. by Cindy VanSchalkwyk
cindyv@eastbaynewspapers.com |
