The gift that keeps on breathing

Dr. Robert Levy has been involved with more than 300 transplants and to this day he’s still in awe of the results.

“Every time I walk in the ICU and see a patient who has just had transplant surgery, laying there with the family, I’m amazed,” the Medical Director of VGH’s Lung Program says. “So yes, it’s a job I do every day but it still remains amazing.”

One of those patients who has amazed Dr. Levy as well as many others is Colleen Kohse, who recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of having double-lung and heart transplant (she also received a kidney transplant 12 years later).

Coleen is still in a bit of disbelief over her experiences.

“Twenty-five years ago in Canada, no one survived end stage cystic fibrosis,” she says. “I was the first to have a successful heart-double lung transplant. I also had the rare opportunity of being a living heart donor. It was a wonderful feeling to both receive and give life. And today I continue to enjoy a healthy life—one that I had never known before.”

The gift of donation

“Colleen is just a stunning example of what the gift of donation can accomplish,” Dr. Levy says. “It’s incredible…you think of lung transplants as being science fiction and now it’s part of work, every day.”

Colleen is Canada’s longest surviving cystic fibrosis patient to receive such a procedure. She was originally treated by a face very familiar to those at VCH.

“I first treated Colleen in the 1980s and recommended that she undergo this procedure,” says VCH president & CEO Dr. David Ostrow. “The operation wasn’t well established at that time but I remember Colleen as incredibly brave for travelling to another continent and going through with it. The fact that she has survived so long—and so well—and also donates a considerable amount of time to CF causes, really makes her an inspiration for other cystics.”

Secret to success

The median survival rate of CF patient post-lung transplant is only nine years. Dr. Levy credits advances in medicine as reasons for success, but feels that it was ultimately Colleen who defeated the odds.

“Back then, when she got her transplant, there was a 50 per cent likelihood of surviving in the first year,” he says, “it’s now 90 per cent. There were very few survivors of lung transplants from that time. There have been big improvements in in surgery, perioperative care, types of medicines to prevent infections, but a good attitude and a good approach to health living really is absolutely essential to ensure success.”

There are about 500 people in BC waiting for life-saving transplants (30 of those are waiting for lungs). Register your decision on organ donation today at transplant.bc.ca.