Sudbury woman receives double lung transplant
Tina Giroux-Proulx received transplant in Toronto in December
A woman originally from Sudbury has a new lease on life after receiving a double lung transplant last month.
Tina Giroux-Proulx, who now lives in Ottawa, was on the wait list for the transplant, as she suffers from pulmonary hypertension. In November, her health started to deteriorate.
"My breathing got worse. I was having trouble … walking from my bed to the bathroom which I'd say is no more than five feet away," she said.
"It was getting quite difficult for me to do regular daily living."
She said her doctors did more testing that showed her heart was under too much stress. She was admitted to hospital and was put on a machine that provided life support for her lungs.
"It's kind of like a bypass machine for your lungs," she explained.
"Instead of the blood going through your lungs, it [was] going through this machine, and it helps relieve some of the pressures [on my] heart."
Giroux-Proulx was on the machine for six days when doctors told her a set of lungs had been found for her. From there, testing started to make sure the lungs were a good match for her.
"They came in around 5 p.m. … [and] it actually took until 5 a.m. the next morning before it was all a go and they were actually able to start the surgery," she said.
'Amazing' community support
The surgery was successful, although Giroux-Proulx said now she's now still in quite a bit of pain during the recovery period.
"I feel great," she said. "I can breathe. I'm able to walk definitely a lot further than I used to and things just keep progressively getting better."
Giroux-Proulx said she's noticed a huge improvement during physio sessions.
"[I'm] able to walk on the treadmill which is something I was never able to do," she said.
"It feels amazing to be able to do stuff that you were never able to do before."
She said the goal is to live as normal a life as possible once she's through the recovery stage, although she said she will always have challenges with her immune system due to all the medication she's taken.
"They definitely encourage you to live life to your fullest," she said.
"I mean, that's the point of going through a surgery like this without wanting to live life to the fullest after. To me, it's a second chance at life so I'm going to use that and honour my donor by living life to the fullest."
Emotionally, Giroux-Proulx said she's been trying to focus on the positives throughout this experience.
"The biggest thing that I've learned from my experience is just how amazing humanity can be and how kind humanity can be when a person is in need," she said.
"People have been so kind to us. They've been so amazing in supporting us and being here for us."