29-year-old Karen Hamilton is now back at home in Taber surrounded by the giggles and smiles of her twin daughters Emma and Lily.
“I notice every day I can do more. I’m stronger. I don’t have to sleep as long. I can walk and walk and walk,” said Hamilton.
She inherited Cystic Fibrosis as a young child. When Global News last spoke to her in November of last year her lungs were failing and she needed a lung transplant.
She was told it would be up to two years for a suitable donor, but shortly after we did the interview Karen received the news she had been waiting all her life for.
“The lady on the phone said are you sitting down. I told my mom to call my husband and they said they would send a plane for me.”
The next day Hamilton received her double lung transplant surgery In Edmonton.
“I woke up a day or two later and I was sedated. I remember telling my husband tell me if it worked.”
So far her body has accepted the lungs without any complications and she has a new lease on life.
“It definitely extends my life expectancy . They have said to me 20 or 30 years, by that time there might be new medical advances.”
Most patients waiting for lungs die before a match is found and of all the lungs offered for donation, only one in four sets is usable.
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