A Breath of New Life for Patient : Transplant: San Diego’s first heart-lung transplant recipient leaves hospital. Doctors say she should be able to lead a normal life.
For Catherine Renee Williams, the first person to undergo a heart-lung transplant in San Diego County, the first priority after leaving the hospital was “to eat some home cooking.”
The 34-year-old nurse was released Thursday from UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest after being hospitalized in January for treatment of a relatively rare, congenital heart defect that had caused severe and irreversible damage to her lungs.
“I’m happy that it’s over, that the operation is over,” Williams said in a Tennessee drawl. “It was a success.”
At a news conference announcing her release, Williams wearing a bright-green jogging outfit, smiled as she sat between her mother, Shirley King, from Tennessee, and Dr. Cecilia Smith, a pulmonary specialist.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Williams said. “I feel the same, except it’s easier to breathe now because these lungs are healthier and mine were dying.”
“Although she is prone to infections, her life should return to normal in every way with no limitations,” said internationally acclaimed heart surgeon Stuart W. Jamieson, 42, who led UCSD’s surgery team. He is professor of surgery and chief of the division of cardiothoracic surgery at UCSD.
Although she will remain on medication for the rest of her life, Williams said she “cannot imagining not working. I’ll go crazy,” she said. However, she does not know when she will return to work as a labor-and-delivery nurse at Saddleback Memorial Center in Laguna Hills. She plans to stay in San Diego for at least a year.
“We are uncertain of the future, but are hoping for a normal life span,” Jamieson said. “But, in all honesty, we don’t know what to expect. The longest (survivor) of a heart-lung transplant is eight years. I performed the operation eight years ago, and the man is happy and healthy,” Jamieson said. For several months, Williams will be on a rehabilitation program, Smith said. Her heart and lungs will be monitored until she gets stronger. The program will include lifting weights, biking and walking, beginning with checkups twice a week.
Last October, Williams was diagnosed as having Eisenmenger’s syndrome, a rare, congenital heart defect that destroys the lungs. A hole the size of a silver dollar between the two chambers of her heart caused it to pump harder than usual, creating pressure that was gradually destroying her lungs.
Williams, who underwent the complex, five-hour operation March 13, will live with her parents, who moved to San Diego from Memphis in January and leased an apartment near the medical center.
Jamieson has has performed more than 50 heart-lung transplants, a relatively new procedure first attempted only eight years ago. He and his transplant team moved to UCSD last July from Minnesota Heart and Lung Institute.
The transplant team included Drs. Michael P. Kaye, Jolene M. Kriett and Riyad Y. Tarazi, and clinical nurse specialists Ann Hayden and Rebecca Robert.
U.S. survival rates for patients who have undergone heart-lung transplants average about 60%, said a hospital spokesperson. Jamieson’s patients at the Minnesota facility have a 75% survival rate.
Nationally, 31 hospitals are conducting heart-lung transplants. More than 800 of the operations have been conducted worldwide. Medical centers at UCSD, Stanford and UCLA are the only California institutions to have completed heart-lung transplants.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles have completed lung transplants but have not done combination heart-lung transplants.
