Christmas gift in time

She was my daughter Stacey’s best friend in college. They have remained in touch ever since. When I think of Jen, in my mind’s eye I see the two of them, in our home during a college break, sitting at the kitchen table as they chatted and laughed, full of youthful glow and hope for the future. Jen was a slight figure with a broad smile, and my wife and I would remember her thereafter with fondness tinged with sadness, for we knew that beneath her cheerful surface lurked a disease known as cystic fibrosis. Its victims face debilitating physical problems and shortened lives.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) results from a genetic disorder, and there is no cure for it. Steps can be taken to moderate its effects on the body, but they don’t change the direction the disease takes. Life expectancy has increased somewhat over the years as a result of better treatment methods. A child born with the disease 70 years ago was not likely to live more than a year. While life spans vary with the severity of individual cases, the average life expectancy now has reached thirty-seven, although some live much longer.

CF affects the sinuses, the nose, the lungs, the heart, the gall bladder, the pancreas, and the digestive system. Thickened mucus within many areas of the body impedes the proper functioning of organs and systems, with poor digestion leading to malnutrition and pain, inflammation of the pancreas leading to severe pain and sometimes irreversible damage. The sinuses become blocked and infected. The victim is generally weakened and likely to develop defects in the major airways, along with hypertension, heart failure, oxygen deficiency, lung disease, and more. As if a reduced life span were not punishment enough, the life of the CF victim is often made miserable by the disease’s widespread and persistent destruction of the body.

The debilitation that perhaps most often comes to mind when considering the depredations visited upon the CF victim is the ravaging of the lungs. Cystic fibrosis often leaves its victim gasping for breath, starved for oxygen by lungs that can’t function fully. If you’ve ever had a lung collapse, you have some inkling of what real deprivation of breath feels like. It was this kind of severe impairment that left Jen breathing canned oxygen and facing what her doctors described as a remaining life span consisting of no more than “several hundred days.” The only solution would be to remove her damaged lungs and replace them with donated healthy ones.

Approved and on the waiting list for a donor, Jen three times got the glad news that new lungs were available for her. Three times the operation fell through after preparations were made, dashing hope and leading to crushing despair. And then, in the approach of this Christmas season, she got one more chance. A donor had been found and the drastic surgery would take place. Twelve days before Christmas, two fantastically talented and trained surgeons, assisted by a large team, removed Jen’s damaged lungs and replaced them with clean, new, healthy lungs. Eight hours after the surgery, Jen was sitting up in a chair, breathing without oxygen. Not the full, deep, glorious breaths that will come, but the first early intakes of air without struggle, air that gives life. A few hours later, Jen was walking. And then came the ultimate modern sign of well-being when she touched keys and sent her own brief digital message of greeting and thanks to her friends for their support.

Jen is scheduled to go home soon, home to a house that has been thoroughly sanitized, its surfaces cleaned with bleach, its incidentals like cosmetics and food items discarded and replaced with new ones. She will not be receiving visitors, for the risk of infection from the hug or even just the breath of a well-wisher is too great. A common cold could be fatal. The new lungs are healthy, but they can be damaged by new disease if extreme care is not taken. And the other organs of the body that cystic fibrosis attacks are still there, still struggling. Jen will need constant care for three months, then continuing watchfulness to reduce the risk of infection in the lungs or elsewhere. A lot of effort, but the promise of a great return on the investment.

A philosopher might find multiple hidden meanings in Jen’s struggle and its outcome. I take the simple view. Someone moved past the pain of loss and death to make a gift of life to a stranger. Jen, after years of pain and dashed hope, received this incredible gift just in time for Christmas. It surely must have made this the best Christmas she could have had. Made mine better, too.

This story was originally published December 24, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Christmas gift in time."