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Patricia Kaliciak had been in hospital and undergone exams for some days when Dr. Justin Weinkauf gave her troubling information throughout a dialog in 2007.

“If this remedy doesn’t work, or your lungs don’t come by April, all we are able to do is hold you comfy till you go away,” stated the physician.

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Kaliciak, who had come from Saskatoon for a double-lung transplant, knew April was solely three weeks away.

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“I felt overwhelmed, however not afraid to die,” she stated.

“Household got here for the following two-and-a-half months and my mother stayed within the metropolis and noticed me for 3 to 4 hours every day.

“After some time, I discovered hope and step by step turned stronger due to remedy and workouts whereas in hospital.”

Three months in College of Alberta Hospital, she says, didn’t appear that lengthy earlier than she was discharged.

At 10:30 p.m. Might 11, 2007, Kaliciak acquired a name saying it was believed lungs had been discovered which are a match for her.

“A pal picked me up and took me to the hospital,” she says. “However we needed to cease on our method so I might pay my Visa invoice. She nearly wouldn’t cease. However lastly, she did.”

Kaliciak advised her story on the College Hospital’s Spring Celebration on the Royal Glenora Membership final Thursday to thank donors who had given generously to help scientific in
novation and analysis at Edmonton’s Tutorial Well being Centre — the College of Alberta Hospital.

“It has been greater than three years since we’ve been capable of collect on this method,” Jodi Abbott, the hospital basis’s president and CEO stated. “It was exceptionally energizing to fulfill many donors face-to-face to thank them for his or her selfless items that assist so many.”

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Kaliciak, a former nun and principal and trainer at a Saskatchewan all-girls faculty, stated on her arrival on the hospital, a triage nurse requested her what she was there for.

“A double-lung transplant,” she stated. “You go over there,” stated the nurse, pointing.

“I couldn’t imagine that I had stated ‘transplant,” stated Kaliciak. “The time had come. I crawled into mattress and had an excellent sleep.”

The subsequent morning at 7 a.m., she discovered herself on an working room’s surgical procedure desk.

“I believed to myself: ‘Properly God, we could meet ahead of deliberate, but when I make it by means of, Dr. Dale Lien and Dr. Justin Weinkauf from right here will take care of me.’”

Kaliciak was “out” till about 11 a.m. the following day.

“After I got here round, somewhat pump I had worn for a yr was gone — so I knew I had new lungs. I felt relieved and deeply grateful.”

Since her transplant, she says, there have been many emotions and feelings — and a twist.

“The twist is that my immune system is medicinally stored very low, so I don’t reject my new lungs,” says Kaliciak. “COVID has confirmed to be an actual problem. I proceed to at all times masks, and reside very, very rigorously.”

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Weinkauf advised the supportive crowd of present donors it had been a privilege to have cared for Kaliciak for the final 17 years and congratulated her on the sixteenth anniversary of her life-saving double-lung transplant on Might 11, 2007.

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“Patricia had a uncommon lung illness known as familial pulmonary arterial hypertension and was severely in poor health on the time we met her in 2006,” stated the physician.

“Apparently, the tip off on her prognosis was that her sister had acquired a heart-lung transplant for a similar situation eight years prior.”

He added, “We have been ready to make use of remedy to purchase Patricia extra time to have the ability to look ahead to an applicable donor. The donor organs arrived one yr after her being transferred from Saskatchewan, the place she lived on the time.”

Kaliciak had advised the physician the very first thing she heard when she awoke from surgical procedure was his voice.

“She advised me she knew both she had survived and was secure within the ICU, or alternately, she and I had each died and have been in heaven,” stated Weinkauf. “I used to be very relieved to listen to that she thought I had made it to heaven as properly!”

The physician, who additionally works on the Mazankowski Coronary heart Institute, says lung transplantation in Edmonton started on the College of Alberta Hospital in 1986 and thus far 1,200 lung transplants have been carried out.

“The referrals for lung transplant come from B.C, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba,” stated Weinkauf. “We’re considered one of 4 centres in Canada performing this life-saving process and offering complete lifelong take care of post-lung transplantation.

“The lung transplant program in Edmonton has wonderful outcomes acknowledged nationally and internationally. The typical life expectancy following lung transplant is approaching a 10-year median survival.”

nlees@postmedia.com

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