Transplant milestone

Ten years ago, Lisa Erikson was terminally ill now she is celebrating the transplant surgery which gave her a second chance at life. At just 33 years old, the Blenheim mum received a double lung transplant.

And as she marked the special day last week, she paid tribute to the donor and her family for saving her life.

“I can’t not think of the donor every day, I have to take the pills and it’s a reminder twice a day. I wish they knew how much I appreciate them and love them.”

Following the premature birth of her daughter Miriana by emergency caesarean, Lisa developed breathing problems.

For four years, the former midwife saw a range of medical specialists who were baffled by her illness.

She needed oxygen 24-hours a day and struggled to complete everyday tasks, she says. “I couldn’t even put moisturiser on without becoming breathless. I remember being so desperate to get to my oxygen that I’d crawl to it.

“I was exhausted.”

A scan of Lisa’s heart showed how very ill she was, suffering from a rare lung disorder, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, her heart and lungs couldn’t cope.

When doctors told her there was no cure, she was initially angry, she says.

“I thought ‘why me?’ Then someone said something that really touched me, they said ‘why not you?’”

Doctors told her that she would die without a double lung transplant but with a rare B Positive blood type, which only 9 per cent of the New Zealand population have, she readied herself for a long wait.

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