WESTMINSTER : TB Victim Returns From Lung Surgery

Debi French, the 18-year-old student who contracted tuberculosis while attending La Quinta High School, got a warm welcome from a group of friends and relatives Sunday at John Wayne Airport after returning from a Denver hospital where she had a lung operation.

“She’s in excellent health,” said French’s mother, Patti French. “I’m very thankful.”

Last year, 17 La Quinta students, including French, were found with active cases and another 175 had been exposed to tuberculosis.

Last week, state experts on communicable disease visited Orange County to help local health officials address the handling of a new outbreak at the high school.

Health officials believe that 20 people--two staff members and 18 students--who were in contact with French between December and February, when she relapsed, have tested positive for TB bacteria.

In response to the renewed threat, the county this week will retest most of the Westminster school’s 1,300 students and staff.

French, who has a highly drug-resistant strain of TB, was forced to have a part of a lung removed last month at the National Jewish Center in Denver.

According to Pattie French, doctors removed an upper lobe from one of her daughter’s lungs. She said her daughter’s chances of living a relatively normal life are good.

“The doctors said we can live without a lobe, and because she’s young she shouldn’t have any problems,” the mother said. Her daughter’s medication will be monitored by home health nurses five days a week.

The teen-ager is looking forward to getting her diploma from La Quinta. She lost nearly a year of school after she contracted TB.