Lung Program Celebrates its 300th Transplant
Drs. Clinton Lawrence and Seth Force
Thanks to her double lung transplant on Sept. 17, Jo Ellen Kimball, 40, finally was untethered from the oxygen tank that helped her breathe for the past six years. The ability to breathe on her own only nine days after her transplant was a momentous event for this active young mother of two teenaged sons.
But little did she know that there was more cause for celebration. Her transplant was the lung transplant program's 300th transplant since its inception in 1993.
The fact that Kimball can go back to a normal life, possibly even return to her fourth-grade teaching position, is reason enough to celebrate. She's fought hard to get this far, to overcome the lung-crushing symptoms of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). "Because it causes extensive scar tissue, IPF turns the lungs to stone," says her doctor, Dr. Clinton Lawrence, McKelvey Chair in Lung Transplantation Medicine. "Imagine trying to breathe through lava rock every day of your life. And the five-year survival rate is less than 20%. Lung transplantation is the only treatment currently available for this insidious disease."
The ETC's lung transplant program also has come far to reach this 300th milestone—it is not a high-volume program when compared to Emory's other transplant programs. Last year, it performed 35 lung transplants, its most ever and a 300% increase over the number it transplanted 10 years ago. Emory has performed 17 lung transplants in the first six months of this year.
According to Dr. Seth Force, Kimball's surgeon and surgical director of the program, “If anything, this achievement is a team endeavor—and Clint deserves a lot of the credit. When I came on board to expand the program in 2003, Emory Healthcare and the Departments of Medicine and Surgery put the resources in place to grow the lung transplant program. They added staff in the pre- and post-transplant areas and recruited two dedicated thoracic surgeons, Allan Pickens and Felix Fernandez, last year. It's been a huge effort."
Fundamental to the program's level of success, he says, was the generous donations of the many donor families who make transplantation possible. Its success also was made possible by the gifts totaling $24 million since 2001 from the late serial entrepreneur Andrew McKelvey to establish and expand a namesake center at Emory. McKelvey, who died in 2008 from pancreatic cancer, was Dr. Lawrence's friend and patient.
"Emory has the only lung transplant program in the state," continues Dr. Lawrence. "We provide a necessary and quality service to individuals from all walks of life from Georgia and surrounding states, including Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana."
“The bottom line is lung transplantation works, the surgical procedure is safe, and we are improving results,” notes Dr. Force.
Taking the 300th lung transplant moniker in stride, Kimball was released from Emory Hospital a couple of weeks after her transplant to return to her home in Conyers, Ga. "With her charming personality and positive attitude, she is a wonderful advocate for lung transplantation and will offer much hope to our other patients with end-stage lung disease, especially pulmonary fibrosis," says Dr. Lawrence.
