A DUBLIN woman has spoken of her relief at becoming the first patient with a multiresistant fungal lung condition called aspergillosis to receive a lung transplant.
“The chains have been lifted; I can breathe,” said Becky Jones (20) yesterday, 18 days after her double lung transplant at the University Hospital of South Manchester.
“Words simply cannot begin to describe the pure relief I feel.”
Having received the call at 5.30pm on May 29th, Ms Jones was brought to Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel before being transferred to Manchester in an Air Corps helicopter and operated on overnight.
The 20-year-old is now recovering well, has gone out to lunch for the past three days, and has even gone shopping, something she had been restricted to doing online due to her condition.
“I can’t for the life of me remember feeling so well,” the Castleknock native said. “I now plan to travel and study fashion design at college. The world is officially my oyster.”
Having been on the waiting list for over a year, she was accepted for transplant at the hospital at Wythenshawe, which also houses the UK national aspergillosis centre, which specialises in the treatment of the multiresistant condition.
Ms Jones, who has cystic fibrosis, became allergic to the common airborne fungus aspergillus, as is common in CF patients. The fungus grew in her damaged airways to form 10 large fungal balls, for which she was prescribed antifungal drugs. However, the disease became immune to the treatment.
Prof David Denning, director of the UK aspergillosis centre, said the transplant brought together a remarkable set of expertise in fungal infection, molecular testing and advanced transplantation techniques, but noted his young patient had also played her part: “She is a courageous torchbearer for others,” he said.
Ms Jones is now being treated with preventive antifungal agents to minimise the risk of invasive aspergillosis, which is common after lung transplantation.
Aspergillosis describes a large number of diseases involving both infection and growth of fungus as well as allergic responses that can occur in a variety of organs but are most common in the lungs and sinuses.