LOS ANGELES – Miriam Merianos had no idea that when she caught the flu less than two years ago, it would completely change the sound of her voice and her life.
“I was in a lot of pain. I kept saying I couldn’t breathe. They were just trying to figure out what was wrong with me,” Merianos said.
Her symptoms quickly got worse - leaving her hospitalized, then in an induced coma and for nine months - her body relied on a machine to keep her alive. When she woke up she had no idea that doctors had told her family that she would need a double-lung transplant to survive.
“She said, 'This is what happened to you.' She goes, ‘You need a lung transplant.' In my mind, I‘m like, ‘what do you mean, a lung transplant? I’ve never smoked in my life. I’ve never drank. To my mind, I only thought smokers have that,” Merianos said.
For Merianis, it was a lot to take in at once. But, getting to the surgery room would be even harder. Her family reached out to more than 20 doctors and hospitals all who said her surgery would be too high-risk because it was likely that her body would reject the transplants.
“You get that no and you’re like what do you mean, no? I’m here. I have machines on me, you know. Am I going to live like this forever?” Merianos said.
It wasn’t until April last year, that Dr. Abbas Ardehali and his team with the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center decided to take her case knowing it might be her only chance.
“She was a young woman with a family and had acquired the condition as to no fault of her own and we feel that we have an obligation to provide life-saving therapies to patients who have no other options,” Dr. Ardehali said.
In July 2019, Merianos had her double-lung transplant surgery and set out on the road to recovery.
According to Donate Life California, one person could save about eight lives and help 75 others through organ, eye and tissue donations. Dr. Abbas said, that without organ donations, Merianos surgery might not have been possible.
“I felt like a new person. When they called me that same week, my daughter called me and said ‘mom, I’m having a baby so you need to get better, you have to come home,” Merianos said.
She had a lot to celebrate, a new grandchild on the way, her new lease on life and the hope that her story will help others keep fighting until their very last breath.