Medical Marvels: Double lung transplant
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News is taking you inside Manhattan's New York-Presbyterian Hospital for a look at some extraordinary stories that we call Medical Marvels. It's a digital series exclusive to 7online.
Susan Koujak has a rare pulmonary vascular disease that caused both of her lungs to fail. During the last 12 years, she's undergone two double lung transplants. Her first transplanted lungs began to fail last year and she received her second set of donor lungs in May.
Both of her transplants were performed by the same talented team of doctors and nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
In the years between her transplants, Susan made the extraordinary decision to have a child. It's something doctors warned her not to do because of the risks involved with the pregnancy. But Susan was determined to have a child and so she did. Now, she's determined to stay healthy and make her third set of lungs last a lifetime.
Dr. Selim Arcasoy, Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and Lung Transplantation Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital is the primary venue for the ABC series NY Med, which airs Thursday night at 10:00 p.m. on Channel 7.
The hospital is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive hospitals, with some 2,600 beds. In 2013, there were more than 2 million inpatient and outpatient visits to the hospital, including close to 15,000 deliveries and more than 310,000 emergency department visits. More than 6,500 affiliated physicians and 20,000 employees provide state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory, and preventive care in all areas of medicine at six campuses.
To learn more, please visit nyp.org and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
