Breathing Easier and Loving Life: Profile of Lung Transplant Recipient Stacy Hisey

And so began a painful journey into critical illness, temporary improvement, lung transplant, relapse, and—finally—good health. Stacy’s initial diagnosis was pneumonia, but during the ER visit, she developed respiratory failure and ended up on a ventilator at the University of Maryland Hospital. At the time, Jonathan Orens, M.D., now Medical Director of Lung Transplantation at Johns Hopkins, was her pulmonologist who managed her in the intensive care unit. Some months later, she would follow him to Johns Hopkins, where his colleague Steve Yang, M.D., Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation, would perform her lifesaving lung transplant.

While she waited for the transplant, Stacy was quite ill. Nevertheless, whether she was an inpatient or outpatient, Stacy’s family and the Johns Hopkins staff cheered for her constantly. Then, after18 months of being on the lung waiting list, that fateful call finally arrived. Dr. Orens informed Stacy that a suitable donor had been identified and the person’s lungs were being sent to Johns Hopkins immediately.

Grateful and frantic, Stacy and her husband rushed to gather their things and get to the hospital before the lung would no longer be viable. They made it, but surgeons instantly saw problems during the surgery. Trauma caused by attempts to revive the donor caused bruising to the lung. Stacy’s failing health caused additional concern.

Her problems persisted during her recovery. “The first year after a transplant, everyone has problems,” says Stacy, matter-of-factly. “Every couple of months I needed to be hospitalized for two or three days. But after those first three months, I was 80 percent better.”
Stacy says she was determined to survive for her then 13-year-old son, Christopher, and 15-year-old daughter, Crystal. She also had no intention of leaving her husband Jack a widower. “I just always knew they needed me, and I was not going to give up—not that my family would let me,” she observes.

But in July of 2000, Stacy became dangerously ill with a lung infection. She was hospitalized for nine months, only five of which she remembers because she was so unstable. “I ended up with pancreatitis, and my kidneys were shutting down. I was in the ICU on a ventilator for seven months,” she recalls. She is quick to add that, “The people at Hopkins were wonderful. I wouldn’t be here without them. And, of course, even though my family was going through hell, they kept pushing me.”

After most of the acute problems resolved, she was still forced to stay on the ventilator because her “native” lung (the one that was not removed) had become enlarged from emphysema and there was no room for the transplanted lung to function. Dr. Yang performed a technique called “lung volume reduction,” and the surgery was successful. She left the operating room off the ventilator, fortunately, never to require it again.

After that, Stacy would use a wheelchair and require oxygen for the next three months. She also had to go three times a week to cardio-pulmonary rehab at North Arundel Hospital.

Despite those major setbacks, two years later, Stacy is doing remarkably well. “Dr. Orens told my family: ‘Don’t give up until I tell you. She has willpower and I know she is going to make it,’” says Stacy. Her goal was to make it to her daughter’s high school graduation last year, and she did.

Shortly thereafter, Stacy returned for a surprise visit the medical intensive care unit (MICU) at Johns Hopkins to thank the nurses and other staff for supporting her through her ordeal. She arrived completely unassisted, without oxygen. For the dedicated staff at Johns Hopkins, it was a wonderful, unforgettable day.

But the most exciting milestone occurred when she carried the Olympic torch for the winter 2002 Olympics. To train for the .2 mile run with the torch, Stacy walked on the treadmill three times a week, and then graduated to carrying a 2-liter bottle of soda while she walked in her neighborhood, because the torch would weigh about the same amount. At first she was embarrassed that Dr. Orens had nominated her, but then she realized it would be a great honor. And she felt she had to do it to acknowledge her donor and the donor’s family.

The Olympic torch was passed to her by Baltimore Orioles superstar Cal Ripken. Stacy’s family jokes that the “Iron Man” gave the torch to the “Iron Woman.” And that’s a fitting description, because Stacy says she feels 100 percent better: “I’m driving and doing more than I ever did before.”

While on summer vacation four years ago, Stacy Hisey of Passadena, Maryland, thought she had suddenly developed bronchitis. A smoker, Stacy was used to having a cough, but the cough would not let up. “I felt like I was dying,” says Stacy. For a 32-year-old woman with a husband and two children, that thought was especially terrifying. She called her doctor, who told her to go to the nearest Emergency Room.

Bridges Fall 2002

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