Charity Tillemann-Dick’s Lung Transplant Story

In this TED video from 2011, soprano opera singer and pulmonary hypertension patient Charity Tillemann-Dick explains that prior to her lung transplant she was told by doctors her singing was killing her and that she should stop.

Charity Tillemann-Dick gets behind Project Perseverance. 

In this presentation, where she celebrates her first anniversary with new lungs, she tells the crowd that even after a change of doctor, address (moving from high-altitude Colorado to sea-level Baltimore) and diet, her lung function was still deteriorating. Once she switched to an IV medication, her health improved and she managed to continue singing. However her health declined to a critical level following the death of her grandfather and father, and she decided to undergo a double lung transplant.

Find out more about what to expect when recovering from a lung transplant.

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