On April 28th, 2010 my beautiful, highly intelligent, talented twenty-five year old niece died of Pulmonary Fibrosis. This deadly disease kills thousands and thousands of people every year and yet no one does anything about it. I am sick and fedup with all the noise that is made for breast cancer and prostate cancer and I think it is high time people were educated about this devastating fatal disease for which there is no cure, no medicine and no treatment. My niece's only option was a double-lung transplant but she wasn't even a candidate for that as her conditioned had deteriorated rapidly within five months.
Natalie had received extensive chemo and radiation therapy at age fourteen when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Nobody ever said a word about the possibility of lungs scarring/PF in later years and she was never told about it by her treating doctors. Everytime Natalie went for her tests and checkups no one of those so called professionals and doctors told her that her lungs were scarring. At least she would have been able to have lung transplant at that time when she was still strong enough to withstand the ordeal of a 12 hour operation and the tests that were to be done leading to the operation. In fact, the doctors at UCLA transplant center were very rude and blunt with her, showed no compassion for a young girl who was standing in front of this huge and terrible ordeal.
Please folks, do some reading and research on Pulmonary Fibrosis on the internet and urge the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to stop dragging their feet and do something about finding a treatment, if not the cure, for this horrible, irreversible and fatal disease.
Natalie will thank you and so do I......
May my beloved Natalie's soul rest in peace knowing that there will soon come a day when no one else will suffer the way she did of this disease.