WESTMINSTER : TB Patient Has Part of Lung Removed

Debi French, the 18-year-old who suffered a relapse of the tuberculosis she acquired in an outbreak of the disease at La Quinta High School in Westminster, successfully underwent surgery Tuesday to remove a third of her right lung.

“She is sleeping, comfortable and doing very well. I am relieved,” Debi’s mother, Patti, said after the 2 1/2-hour surgery at University Hospital of Colorado to remove the diseased upper lobe of her daughter’s right lung.

Doctors said the surgery would greatly increase the chance of a complete cure for Debi French, who was infected with a strain of TB that resists the first line of TB-fighting antibiotics.

The teen-ager’s TB was originally diagnosed by her family physician in May, 1993, when she was a junior at La Quinta. She was one of 17 La Quinta students to have contracted the disease since 1991. Orange County health officials determined that 12 of the students, Debi among them, acquired a strain of TB that is resistant to one of the major TB medications.

Nonetheless, Debi French, like the other students, seemed to be responding to another combination of medications until February, when she suddenly developed a kind of TB bacteria that resisted still more drugs and began to quickly multiply.

In April, Debi, at the suggestion of county health officials, was flown by private jet to the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, which specializes in treating people with drug-resistant TB. The center referred her to nearby University Hospital of Colorado for the surgery.

Dr. Jim Cook, head of the division of infectious diseases at the National Jewish Center, said all of the disease in Debi’s left lung has been removed and she will receive antibiotics for about two more years to heal a small abnormal area remaining in her left lung. She should be going home in about three weeks, he said.