By Catie Talarski -
Beth Peters, pre lung transplant
Good news. Beth Peters, the 29-year-old woman I am profiling for a documentary on cystic fibrosis, received her double lung transplant last week. We heard from her during a show “Living With Cystic Fibrosis“. She talked about what it was like waiting for her new lungs:
Every time that there are donor lungs that become available they call in two people – one they call the primary candidate, the person who they think is the closest match, and one who’s the back up or the secondary candidate. Both time I’ve been the secondary candidate, to my knowledge. And the first time the donor lungs definitely went to primary recipient. That person was clearly a better match. It’s difficult because you have to have a certain level of trust in the system to mentally survive the process. But, there is a lot of mystery involved. To protect peoples privacy they only tell you what they have to tell you for your own medical information. You are there for 12 hours, maybe overnight. You’re not eating… you don’t know “Am I primary or secondary candidate? What’s the reason I’m not matching? Is it my blood work, is it my gender, is it my size?” They don’t tell you.
I’ll be updating more as I hear from Beth and her doctor, but in the meantime check out Beth’s blog. Her sister is posting updates on her progress.
