In addition to thanking her parents at spring commencement this year , Ohio State student Lisa Savage will be thanking a complete stranger.
Savage, a senior in interior design, received a life-saving double lung transplant in February 2000 from a 35-year-old woman who died of a brain aneurysm.
Savage and her twin sister Beth were both born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that affects one in 31 million Americans. The disease causes the body to produce an abnormally thick mucus in the lungs that makes breathing extremely difficult. Sufferers battle a constant cough, and many are forced into chest therapy in order to dislodge mucus.
Throughout school, no one knew the two had CF, kids just knew they were “the girls who were always coughing.”
Savage’s high school performance was never affected by her bouts with CF.
“I maintained a 3.98 grade point average and went to Ohio State right out of high school,” she said. “I had joined a sorority and had a social life just like everyone else.”
But unlike everyone else, Savage was forced to skip winter quarter because the cold weather was too hard on her lungs. Instead, she attended spring, summer, and autumn quarters.
She graduated from OSU with her first bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1991, after six years of hard work.
“I was stable after college until about 1995,” she said. “At the time I lived in Virginia Beach, and that’s where I felt myself start to get worse, so I moved back to Columbus.”
After visiting the doctor, she was told it was time to start thinking about a transplant. Savage said she was in shock.
“I could still go out; I thought the doctors were nuts,” she said.
She went to an evaluation at The Cleveland Clinic and at University Hospitals of Cleveland in 1996, where doctors determined that she still was not ready for the transplant.
“In 1997 I started thinking about a transplant a little more, because there was less and less I was able to do,” she said.
An evaluation in 1998 determined it was time for a transplant, and by later that year, Savage was oxygen and wheelchair dependent. She was then finally placed on the transplant list.
“All I could do was eat, go to treatment and go to the hospital,” she said. “I was so tired I couldn’t even drive a stick shift car.”
Carol Savage, Lisa’s mother, recalls her daughter’s dismal days awaiting the transplant.
“Lisa’s social life was getting dressed up for clinic visits,” she said.
Savage later coughed up blood for nearly a week, and in October 1999, she struggled through a battle with depression.
“I almost took my name off the waiting list; I saw no light at the end of my tunnel,” she said. “It was the worst time of my life.”
After 16 months on the list, Savage received the call she had been hoping for. At 10:15 p.m., on Feb.1, 2000, her transplant coordinator called to say she had a set of lungs for her.
“When I got the call, I almost knew it was my transplant coordinator, because I had just got done talking to my mom and sister on the phone,” she said. “I knew that no one else would be calling me that late.
“My coordinator told me to pack my bags, it was time to go,” she said.
But Savage had her transplant coordinator beat — her bags had been packed since the day she put her name on the waiting list.
Savage said she hopped a helicopter flight to Cleveland, and within 20-30 minutes of landing, she was in surgery.
“The nurses and the helicopter pilot kept me company while I was waiting,” Carol Savage said. “I kept myself busy tidying up the waiting room.”
Two hours after surgery, Savage was awake, and University Hospitals’ first double-lung transplant was a success.
“After the surgery, I was in an enclosed glass case with a nurse by my side 24 hours a day to monitor me,” Savage said.
Savage said her first conscious thought was sheer relief — her biggest fear had been that she would wake up without her new lungs.
Immediately following the surgery, she said she could not perceive a huge difference and was afraid the transplant had not worked.
“Things got progressively better,” she said, “but it was emotionally difficult for me to accept that someone had died so that I could live.”
For a month after going home, Savage could not go in public without a mask and gloves on, in fear germs might cause a fatal infection.
Despite having to be so careful about germs, only a few months later Savage was able to start at OSU again to pursue another bachelor’s degree.
“After working on so many crafts in the hospital and at home, I started wondering what I could do with this interest,” she said.
Initially, Savage wanted to counsel terminally-ill patients, but soon changed her mind.
“I needed a new avenue,” she said. “I couldn’t center on sickness anymore, when for the first time in my life I was healthy.”
Instead, Savage chose interior design and said she plans for a career in hospital interior design, a job that will let her use both her degrees, as well as her extensive experience in hospitals.
“She still has the same great personality,” her twin sister said. “But her life has been so enhanced by this transplant.”
Savage said she still stays very involved with cystic fibrosis and currently volunteers with newly diagnosed CF patients. In accordance with her transplant, she also volunteers with Lifeline of Ohio, a Columbus-based organization dedicated to raising awareness about organ and tissue donation.
When Savage is not volunteering, she is spending time in the classroom.
“She is such a special person and a well-rounded student,” said Susan Zavotka, one of Lisa’s interiors professors. “She sets performance standards in the classroom and goes out of her way to help others learn and do well.”
Now, after endless doctor appointments and 16 months of waiting for a new set of lungs, Lisa Savage’s life is back on track.
“I feel like George Bailey on ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,'” she said, “I’m alive again!”
