Cape Town - Tygerberg Hospital has been creating awareness of lung health through its annual commemoration of World Lung Day on September 25.
The theme for this year was: “Access to prevention and treatment for all. Leave no one behind.”
The hospital said the two vital organs responsible for oxygen exchange in our bodies were increasingly under threat from a number of factors, including smoking, respiratory infections and pollution.
Diseases that can affect the lungs may arise in the airway, tissue or blood vessels of the lungs, preventing them from performing optimally. Common lung diseases include pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.
Tygerberg Hospital’s respiratory clinic saw 2 228 patients in 2022, of which 535 were new patients.
Georgeen Burrows, 36, from Paarl fell sick in November 2014, and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a dilated heart as well as Crohn’s disease, a type of chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
“I was severely short of breath and constantly tired. Everything I did felt like I had completed a marathon – getting out of bed, getting dressed, walking a short distance, talking or singing. It was so bad that I had to resign from work. I felt so hopeless and helpless and had to depend on my husband and family members to assist me with my condition. I was fortunate to have a support system. My faith also played a big role as I had to trust and hope that everything would work out the way it should.”
On January 28, 2019, Burrows had a pulmonary endarterectomy, a surgical procedure to clear the blood vessels of the lungs from clot and scar material. It is used to treat chronic thrombo-embolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), a rare but serious condition in which blood clots form in the pulmonary (lung) arteries, restricting or blocking blood flow, thereby leading to high blood pressure in these arteries.
The operation involves a “heartlung bypass” machine and is a major operation. In a large proportion of patients who undergo this operation, their level of activity, quality of life and life expectancy are significantly improved.
“I am a whole new person after the operation. I can now talk, sing, dance, jump out of bed, bathe and run up the stairs with ease without any signs of tiredness. The feeling is unexplainable. Five months after the operation, I fell pregnant and gave birth to a healthy boy. Also, I have been working again since 2021. I am super happy to have my life back.”