Patient Story: Undergoing a Lung Transplant

Liesbeth Stoeffler, a patient with cystic fibrosis, describes her experience of undergoing a lung transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Liesbeth's story is unusual because while waiting for a lung to become available, she took a sudden turn for the worse and was put in the ICU on a ventilator. In order to regain her health and maintain her ability to stay on the transplant waiting list, doctors put her on a machine known as an ECMO, which she stayed on for the unusually long period of 18 days. Her strength returned; a lung eventually became available; and Liesbeth was able to undergo a lung transplant. The ECMO machine functions like a lung. Blood is drained from the patient into the machine; the machine adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the blood; and blood is put back into the patient's body.