Celebrating Milestones After Third Double-Lung Transplant
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Third double-lung transplants are a rare procedure. Duke Health has performed more of these than any other center at 13 procedures.
Most of these cases are patients with cystic fibrosis, who are young, otherwise healthy, and have no other treatment options.
That was the case for 26-year-old Taylor Stephenson. When it became clear to Taylor that she needed a third double-lung transplant, she began to call transplant centers all over the country, hoping to connect with this kind of specialized care. She picked up her life and temporarily moved from Oklahoma to North Carolina when she was accepted into the transplant program.
Taylor received her new set of lungs last month, becoming the latest person to receive a third double-lung transplant. When she awoke from her procedure her care team said it would be a great sign of progress if she could manage to sit in a chair. She got up and walked 50 ft that day, and over 200 ft the next. Taylor is doing well now and is continuing her care at Duke through physical therapy. She is committed to hitting milestones of progress through intense rehabilitation, ecstatic to be able to breathe again.
Read more about the lung transplant program: https://www.dukehealth.org/treatments/transplant-program/lung-transplant