| Pulmonary Rehabilitation Patient Gains New Lease on Life
Tri-City Voice, December 5th, 2007
Transplant Patient Credits "Caring”
Practitioners with Successful Recovery
Rachelle Harang, a 31-year resident of
Fremont who turned 58 in
October, didn’t hesitate when one of her
fellow Better Breathers - members of a
support group at
Washington
Hospital -
asked her where she thought she would be
without the lung transplant she received
the day before Thanksgiving last year.
"I said:
‘Dead,’” Rachelle remembers. "I couldn’t
walk very far without gasping. Two weeks
ago, I visited townhouses and walked 57
stairs and wasn’t out of breath at all.”
When she
first began pulmonary rehabilitation at
Washington
Hospital
with the program’s coordinator, Margaret
Chaika, RCP, Rachelle’s condition had
made it impossible for her to walk more
than five minutes walking on the
treadmill during her rehab sessions.
Rachelle
had been diagnosed with a rare genetic
condition called neurofibromatosis (NF),
part of a category of genetic disorders
of the nervous system that primarily
affect the development and growth of
neural (nerve) cell tissues, causing
tumors to grow on nerves and produce
other abnormalities such as skin changes
and bone deformities. In Rachelle’s
case, the condition attacked her lung
tissue.
Five years
ago, her left lung collapsed and she
spent three weeks in the intensive care
unit. After the collapse, she had to be
on oxygen 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, Rachelle says. Then after
undergoing an unrelated procedure,
Rachelle’s right lung collapsed.
"I just
couldn’t do anything without being out
of breath,” Rachelle says.
In part,
what kept her going after her lungs
collapsed, she says, was the care and
support she received from
Washington
Hospital’s team of
respiratory care professionals, Chaika
and her treating physician, Dr. Jason
Chu, a pulmonary disease specialist and
medical director of
Washington
Hospital’s
Respiratory Care and Pulmonary
Rehabilitation Departments.
By the time
Rachelle got the call for her transplant
in 2006, she had known Chaika for years,
having been through pulmonary
rehabilitation twice at
Washington
Hospital.
"The
transplant gave her a new lease on
life,” according to Chaika. "Rachelle
recently went to the transplant picnic
and she had met people 10 and 12 years
out of surgery. And when I called her a
few days after the surgery she said ‘My
hands aren’t blue (from lack of
oxygen)!’ She had been so desensitized
to being short of breath.”
Chaika
calls Rachelle "her hero,” not only for
being so compliant with her treatment,
medications and rehab, but for her
positive attitude. Rachelle is a
talented seamstress, who Chaika has
dubbed "Martha Stewart,” and also has
served as a Washington Hospital Service
League volunteer, donating her time to
make blankets for babies in the
hospital’s Special Care Nursery,
greeting people as they enter the
hospital and making copies and compiling
worksheets for new patients.
"Whenever
something hard comes up in life, I think
of Rachelle,” Chaika says. "She’s a very
strong person.”
Rachelle
certainly returns the sentiment,
crediting Margaret with being an
instrumental part of her journey to
recovery.
"Margaret
is an angel,” she says. "All her
patients just adore her because she is
just so caring and so loving. Margaret
follows her patients; she cares about
people and that’s important. I always
feel safe when I’m with her.”
The same
goes for Dr. Chu, who Rachelle says
"really cares” about his patients. She
recalls telling both Chaika and Dr. Chu,
"I’m going to beat this thing.”
She says
having a terrific support network has
made a huge impact on her successful
treatment and recovery. She calls her
husband, Tom, "her rock” and says the
support from her fellow Better Breathers
was indispensable.
Of Chaika,
Rachelle says: "If it wasn’t for her, I
don’t know if I’d be here. She was part
of my strength in doing this, and Dr.
Chu of course. Margaret was always there
when I needed her. She drove me to the
hospital how many people would do
that?”
The
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Department at
Washington Hospital has been a critical
factor in her successful recovery,
according to Rachelle.
"It teaches
you so much,” she says. "I think that’s
why I did so well in my recovery because
of everything Margaret has taught me.”
Rachelle
and Tom have two children, Crissie, 31,
and Tommy, 24. Losing her own mother at
the age of 17, Rachelle says it means a
lot to her to be there for her kids.
"I call
this transplant my miracle; it’s just a
miracle,” Rachelle says. "I’m here and
it’s been eight months and five days and
I’m feeling great. I can see my family
and do things I couldn’t do. When I used
to go places, I would have to think ‘How
many oxygen tanks do I have to fill?’
now I just have to remember to bring my
pills. Sometimes I even forget that I’m
not on oxygen anymore.”
Breathe
better
Washington
Hospital’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation
program helps patients with chronic lung
disease return to daily life without the
anxiety of struggling for breath during
daily activities. Enrollment in the
program requires a physician’s referral
and preliminary breathing tests to
measure the oxygen you breathe in and
the carbon dioxide you breathe out.
To learn
more about the Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Department at Washington Hospital, call
(510) 494-7025.
The Better
Breathing for Life Club, a free support
group at Washington Hospital, is for
people with chronic lung conditions,
such as chronic asthma, bronchitis,
emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis or
other restricted lung disease. Family
members and loved ones are welcome to
attend.
To be added
to the group’s mailing list, call (510)
494-7025. If you reach a recording,
press "2” when prompted.
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