SRVHS Alum Talks About Double-Lung Transplant

Katie Fleming doesn't know whose lungs saved her life, but they're a perfect match according to her doctors.

"It is a miracle," said Fleming's aunt, Marylou Ritter. "The doctor said the donor was a perfect match, the same age, size and blood type. That was pretty exciting."

When Fleming received a double-lung transplant two months ago, her doctors said she may have to stay near the Stanford University Medical Center campus for two or three months as part of her recovery.

She has been doing so well, however, that she came back home to Danville about three weeks after her surgery.

Although she still has to take precautions like wearing a mask in a crowd, and avoiding places with a lot of germs, like movie theaters and airplanes, she is getting to do many things she couldn't while waiting for the transplant, like walking around town and spending more time with friends.

Because of privacy rules, Fleming had to go through a third party to write a thank you letter to the family of the 19-year-old woman whose lungs she has now. She hopes she may get to meet them.

Fleming says she signed up to be an organ donor when she got her driver's license, even before she knew she might need a transplant someday.

She graduated from San Ramon Valley High in 2008 and was diagnosed at age one with cystic fibrosis—an inherited disease that causes the body to produce sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and inhibits the breakdown and absorption of food.

After a three-week stay in the ICU in April, Fleming moved to the top of the lung-transplant list at Stanford, taking oxygen 24 hours a day from a breathing tube and spending up to five hours each day in treatments to remove the mucus from her lungs as she awaited the call about the double-lung donor.

Doctors say her cystic fibrosis won't attack the new lungs, although rejection by the body is now a risk.

Fleming takes an anti-rejection medication which has caused a diabetes condition  she didn't have before the transplant, and now she must take insulin shots. She visits her doctors at Stanford about once a month and goes to a pulmonary rehabilitation gym twice a week.

Watch the video to hear Katie Fleming talk about her lung transplant.

Family and friends with the help of the Children's Organ Transplant Association, are working to raise money for the post-transplant expenses not covered by insurance. So far $45,000 has been raised.

There will be a golf tournament in three weeks at the Blackhawk Country Club to raise money for Fleming.

The golf tournament is Tuesday, August 17 with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. Register online by August 3. Individual Play Registration is $350 and team of four registration is $1,200. The registration fee includes a boxed lunch, golf with cart, dinner, silent and live auction and prizes.