Double-lung patient still in ICU

An Ottawa woman’s prognosis is good, but her double lung transplant was more complicated than first let on, doctors acknowledged at a news conference Tuesday.

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, called 21-yearold Helene Campbell’s lung transplant “one of the more courageous and challenging we’ve ever done.”

The procedure was complicated by Helene’s petite frame. Her incurable, degenerative lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, made her lungs even smaller.

The transplant team was looking for a donor with equally small lungs. None became available.

As doctors watched Helene’s condition deteriorate rapidly, they decided on April 6 they couldn’t wait for a smaller donor and instead would perform a rare lobar transplant.

That procedure uses just a portion of a larger donor’s lungs — in Helene’s case, the left upper lobe and the right lower and middle lobe, said Dr. Tom Waddell, the thoracic surgeon who performed the operation.

“Her course was potentially rocky,” Waddell told reporters Tuesday. “Certainly we were aware that there is a moment in any lung transplant where it can turn very bad very quickly.”

Only about five per cent of all lung transplants use the technique.

Campbell gained renown for her new media campaign publicizing the need for organ donors. The bubbly, inspiring young woman gained numerous celebrity supporters, including Justin Bieber and Ellen Degeneres.

At Tuesday’s news conference, doctors were very optimistic about her condition, saying the infection and rejection Helene has encountered since the operation are common post-transplant conditions.

Helene is now physically active, having begun short periods of rehabilitation that include walking on a treadmill.

She is still in the intensive care unit at Toronto General Hospital, where the procedure was performed two-and-a-half weeks ago.