A Breath of Fresh Air

January 20, 2017

by: Edgar Asher

Friday, 20 January 2017 | Surgeons at Petach Tikvah’s Beilinson Hospital have successfully performed a rare lung transplant procedure on a 39-year old woman who had been attached to a respirator for the best part of a year before a suitable donor lung was made available.

Liz Morad, who underwent surgery at Beilinson earlier this month was unable to speak and had to communicate with people by SMS or video, because she did not want to be seen by people in her distressed state. Now, home at last she is walking and speaking.

Liz Morad’s breathing problems started about four years ago and gradually over that time the condition of her lungs deteriorated so much that the doctors determined that only a lung transplant could save her life.  However the fact of being on a respirator for such an extended period of time presented additional difficulties to the hospital’s doctors.

The actual operation was fraught with problems because, apart from anything else, Morad’s muscles that control her breathing were very weak due to the fact that the respirator was doing all the work to enable her to breath. In addition there were very few recorded cases in the world where a patient had successfully received a lung transplant after being so long on a respirator before the operation could proceed.

Even Morad’s medical team has expressed their pleasure and amazement that she has almost returned completely to a normal life after so many years. For Liz Morad one of the greatest pleasures was being able to hug her daughters after such a long time.

Posted on January 20, 2017

Source: (Ashernet originally published this article on 17 January 2017. Time-related language was modified to reflect our republication today.)

Photo Credit: Ashernet