Before her transplant of both lungs, Joanne Mellady gasped as she struggled to put on a shirt. After the intervention, he would not stop moving.
Mellady, who passed away from the coronavirus in March, did so many things that her family blushes when compared to her.
Since the 2007 transplants, Mellady, a widow and former technology consultant from Washington, New Hampshire, has traveled the Atlantic coast of the United States in her motor home and traveled to Alaska and the Grand Canyon of Colorado.
She had left the shy, oxygen-dependent person behind 24 hours a day, and at 67 she was a lively woman, eager to take risks and try everything. Paragliding, skiing, skating and kayaking are some of the activities he tried.
ADVERTISEMENT
Before dying he spoke of returning to Alaska and participating again in the Transplant Games (which were suspended). In those games he won medals in bowls, bowling and swimming in the past, and he hoped to compete in golf.
“He had a list of things to do before he died and he decidedly did them,” said his sister Jean Sinofsky. “I enjoyed every day. He lived life the way everyone should. “
Sinofsky and another sister, Joyce Smith, recall the impact that Mellady’s adventurous spirit left on her children, who treated her like a teenager.
They say that when one of Smith’s sons won a trampoline in a raffle, Mellady was the first to try it out and did cartwheels. And that he slid in the snow with his dog to collect the mail.
“He wanted to try everything that came his way,” Smith said. “Life gave him a second chance. I knew it and felt lucky. ”
Much of her life in Massachusetts, Mellady suffered from a mysterious lung disease. Around age 40, he was found to have a genetic disorder that predisposes people to chronic lung obstructions and emphysema that they already have.
When his lungs were replaced in 2007, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic told him they were working at 15% of capacity and that they had never seen anything worse.
For the next 13 years, Mellady was an example to other patients who undergo similar transplants and a source of important information for doctors studying her condition.
He lived more than twice what was expected, since the average life span of people who undergo these transplants is 6.3 years.
These patients are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus because the medicines they take weaken their immune systems and make them more susceptible to infections.
But Mellady’s death was devastating for Marie Budev, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s lung transplant program, because the patient was an example of what a person can do after that intervention.
Mellady “knew how lucky she was,” said Budev.
He participated in various investigations in Boston and collaborated with efforts to promote organ donation.
“He loved helping others and medicine,” said Budev.
Gary Schmidt, who had both lungs transplanted nearly seven years ago, often asked Mellady for advice.
“After the transplants, I didn’t know what the future holds for me. She made me understand that she had a lot of life ahead of her, ”said Schmidt. “That was very important to me.”
After the lung transplant, Schmidt, from Watkins Glen, New York, underwent open heart surgery, was on dialysis for three years, and finally underwent a kidney transplant.
Throughout this process, she told him not to turn himself in. That he was going to recover, ”said Schmidt’s wife Deb. “I think I wouldn’t have been able to get through all this if it hadn’t been for her.”
In early March, Mellady ate at an Irish restaurant with her sisters, brother Fred Smith, and other family members.
The next day he was admitted to a Concord, New Hampshire hospital, thinking he had pneumonia.
A few days later, he was diagnosed with coronavirus and his health deteriorated rapidly. He passed away on March 30.
– .
