Share this:
Barbara Brown was working in New York City when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred. Exposure to toxins led to years of struggling to breathe and searching for answers.
Barbara's journey led her to Mayo Clinic and, ultimately, a life-changing double-lung transplant. With renewed strength, Barbara shares what drives her to educate others about transplants.
Watch: Double-lung transplant inspires mom to educate and support others
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (2:14) is in the downloads at the end of the post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.
"I was meeting my girlfriends for breakfast," Barbara says. "She actually worked in the World Trade Center. When the actual plane hit the tower, I wasn't right up on the towers, but I was where you could see it."
What followed that day would change Barbara's health and life forever.
"All of this stuff that was in your lungs," Barbara recalls.
Over time, Brown started to notice changes in her health. Then, a pivotal moment in 2006 while being a mom to an active 2-year-old girl.
"(My daughter) jumped up in my arms, and I kind of fell backward. And I fell down, and I couldn't hold her," Barbara says. "That was the first big thing with my lungs."
Barbara was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, where inflammation and scarring make it difficult to breathe. Doctors explained that someday she would need a lung transplant.
"I looked at this little girl that I had, and I said, 'You know, if I'm going to fight, I'm going to fight for her, you know,'" Barbara says. "And so that's what I chose to do."
Barbara spent much of the next decade searching for a transplant program that would be the right fit. She traveled across the country speaking with care teams and taking evaluations — all while her lungs grew weaker. Then, Mayo Clinic entered her life.
"Barbara came through our doors, referred to us from an outside provider, with a disease that was fairly advanced," Dr. Tathagat Narula, a Mayo Clinic transplant pulmonologist, says. "She was on a lot of oxygen, very, very sick."
After qualifying for a double-lung transplant and spending time on the waiting list, Barbara got the call in April 2017.
"It's the scariest thing in the world because now you're looking at everybody and you're like, 'This is it!'" Barbara says. "'This is really it!'"
Recovery would be long, but after physical therapy to regain her strength, Barbara was breathing without assistance and ready to pick up where her life had paused. The journey has also inspired her to share her story and dispel misconceptions about transplant.
"I decided that I was going to really write about my experience," Barbara says. "If I can do something to get the information out there, and I said, 'I'm going to maybe attempt at it this way.'"
"In Barbara's case, she has had this opportunity to see her daughter grow up, go to college," Dr. Narula says. " Barbara is writing a book to share her journey, to share her story with the wider audience. What more can you ask for?"
Eight and a half years after transplant, she's happy and excited for her next chapter.
"Do I look like someone who's been through a double-lung transplant? No, but what does someone look like? If someone says I look like a happy person, then that's what I would prefer looking like," Barbara says.
Related stories:
- Mayo Clinic’s transplant center in Florida performs 10,000th
- Expert alert: 5 reasons more diverse organ donors are needed
