Pandemic looms over ‘second chance at life’ for couple with new lungs
When either Danny and Marie-Eve Norris goes out to get groceries these days, which they do just once a week, they wear gloves and take care to stay as far away from others as possible. Upon returning home, they immediately shower and wash the clothes they were wearing.
“It could be on your clothes,” Danny says of the novel coronavirus, “and then if you sit on the couch, it could be there.”
Other than that lone outing, neither is in face-to-face contact with others, not even Marie-Eve’s parents, who live nearby. They also cancelled a planned trip to Hawaii two weeks ago.
They’re certainly not being overly cautious. Each has cystic fibrosis (CF), and they’ve both had double-lung transplants. The life-saving anti-rejection drugs they’re required to take, which lower their immune systems so that their bodies will accept their new lungs, make them particularly susceptible to the coronavirus and resulting COVID-19.
For the Norrises, and others in similar situations, the precautions they’re taking are a matter of life and death.
“It puts us at risk of catching anything, like a cold, a flu, or COVID -19, a lot easier than a ‘normal’ person,” says Danny, 29. “And the way it would affect us would probably be more severe. Being quarantined at home is hard, but we know it’s for the best.”
For not only are their lungs compromised due to their transplants, so, too, are other organs, as well as their digestive systems, because of the CF.
“It affects pretty much everything,” says Danny, who was diagnosed with CF when he was six months old. “Your body is pretty much full of mucous, and if you put COVID-19 on top of that, it would lead to pneumonia in the lungs, which could be severe.”
Danny received his new lungs in May 2017, about five years after he had to stop working as a letter carrier with Canada Post. He returned to work following his transplant, as a sorter in the corporation’s Ottawa plant, but had to stop work again, two weeks ago, because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Marie-Eve, meanwhile, had a double-lung transplant in January 2013. A year his junior, she works at a dog kennel in Casselman which, like businesses everywhere, closed due to the pandemic.
“The risk of transmission is something I was taught from a very young age, to be aware of these sorts of things,” Danny says. “So I’m probably ahead of the normal person who’s just learning about all these things.
“I’ve always taken lots of precautions when I’m out, just because of the flu or colds. I never touch door handles. I always use my sleeve, or I wear gloves. I constantly Purell, and try to avoid people who are coughing or sneezing.”
It helps, too, that the couple live on a 100-acre farm in Casselman, where they can still get outside with their pet Rottweiler/Husky cross, Steeler, while avoiding contact with others. And, as transplant recipients, they’ve been very familiar with self-isolating protocol since they began seeing one another, shortly after Marie-Eve’s transplant.
“After a transplant, you don’t want to see too many people,” Danny says. “So we’ve already been part of the self-isolation. This is nothing new for us.
“Now, we’re just doing what everybody should be at this time,
My biggest fear is the toll this is taking on our health-care system. It’s something that I rely on every day.
learning what to avoid and how to protect yourself as much as possible. We’re staying at home, trying to ride it out.
“I’m not freaked out,” he adds. “There are obviously unknowns, but I’ve been basically living with this my whole life. My biggest fear is the toll this is taking on our health-care system. It’s something that I rely on every day.
“Suppose something else went wrong, like I rejected my lungs. The ICUs are full, so getting treatment for other issues that I or other people might have could be difficult now, so that’s scary. And people who are hoarding things, like masks, and are putting our health-care professionals at risk … growing up in hospitals, healthcare professionals have become like family to me, and seeing them put at risk, which puts patients at the hospital at risk, is crazy to me. The toll that this is taking on them is probably my biggest fear.”
In the meantime, Danny and Marie-Eve will stay at home, watch Netflix, play board games, take Steeler for walks, and hope that others do the same, and that this pandemic will pass as quickly and as safely as possible.
“Having a lung transplant is a second chance at life, and you definitely want to live it,” he says. “Hopefully, people will realize what’s important and stay at home, and appreciate the small things in life once this is all over.”