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Lung patient Awaits Donor

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Tuesday September 20, 2011

By Marcie Bolton

   Tammy Shackett needs to work a bit harder now when doing her laundry. She walks slower through the grocery store aisles.  She needs oxygen at routine intervals throughout the day.  What she really wants are two lungs.   She has been preparing herself mentally and physically for the last two years to make the phone call to Boston’s Brigham and Women’s hospital to let them know she is ready to get on the list.   After one more test result, and since her primary care physician approved her, she is calling this week to be placed on the OPTN (Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network) National Transplant Waiting List.  

    Now that her granddaughter Isabella is three, she seems to be always asking Mimi to walk with her and play games with her.  Tammy is looking forward to having this surgery, one in which her heart will stop beating momentarily.  That is where her nervousness lies.  That moment when under anesthesia, she has to trust her medical providers to bring her through to the other side, when she can begin healing.  She envisions playing and camping again with her family, and notably Isabella who she cares for most days.  Envisioning these moments without feeling exhausted and overwhelmed is prompting her to pick up the receiver.  As soon as Tammy is alerted about a donor, she will call Bristol Rescue, who will then alert Dartmouth Medical Center helicopter to rally a crew, fly to the Mt. Abraham High School athletics field, or Porter Hospital landing area and zip her down to Boston.  It all must happen in a few short hours for the donor lungs to stay viable.    

    Tammy’s husband, Ron “Peanut” Shackett and her two sons, Adam, 21, and Tyler, 17, a Mt. Abe High School senior, live in Bristol, Vermont.  Tammy has never smoked, nor does her immediate family members, but her father did growing up.  Tammy also ingested amniotic fluid while during her birth, from which she contracted pneumonia.  These are some pieces of her health puzzle that her family believes may have compromised her lungs.  On a seventh grade field trip hiking up to Silver Lake in Salisbury, she started having shortness of breath.  Diagnosed with Asthma, had to start using an inhaler.    Then as a teen she was diagnosed with bronchiectasis (an obstructive lung disease) and emphysema.  She worked for Simmonds Precision Corporation from 1983 to 1991, where everyone around her smoked.  Her lungs are so damaged, and her quality of life, so dramatically degenerated, she is a prime candidate for a lung transplant.  

    While waiting for two lungs, with the average wait time is 141 days, Shackett will be given regular tests and put on a regimen of exercise, healthy eating, no smoking (Tammy does not smoke), and limited or no use of alcohol.  She recently had a tooth crowned, and a hernia repaired all to bring her body to tip top shape as people who receive organs have to be in optimal health to receive their organs.  

    Tammy and her family will be counseled regarding where her family will stay, transportation, legal and financial issues.  Also, along with family members, she will be advised as to what to expect before, during, and after lung transplantation.

     After the 10 hour procedure, she will have a 17 day stay in the hospital.  The two greatest risks will be organ rejection and infection.  Immunosuppressive drugs will be administered to slow the rejection process.  She will have to travel to Boston, once a week for six weeks, to undergo testing and monitoring for rejection.   It is a long haul to a healthy future, but one Shackett wants to get started on.  

    Tammy Shackett’s sister Missy Clough, has started fundraising.  Costs for traveling, co-pays and medications go well beyond insurance coverage.  According to transplantliving.org, the average cost of a double-lung transplant in 2008 averaged $657,800.

•    The Caring Bridge website has given them a platform for gathering funds.  
www.caringbridge .org/visit/tammyshackett

•     Collection buckets have been placed Video King, Middlebury Redemption, Bristol Redemption and Cubbers.  

•    There will be a spaghetti dinner held on October 21, from 5:30-7:30 at the Bristol Elementary school. The cost will be eight dollars per person. Children five and under are free.

•    You can send contributions to Peoples Bank, c/o Missy Clough, 3 North Maple Street, Vergennes, Vermont 05491.  For any questions you can call Missy at 388-0413.  

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