Heather's Story

Heather James, 21

Heather James was born with this genetic disease and has been in and out of the hospital her whole life, missing weeks of school at a time. It really took hold while Heather was in high school and she began to have difficulties doing even simple everyday tasks. When she was a senior in high school, she was put on life support for the first time after coughing up massive amounts of blood. After that, her lung capacity dropped to a new low of 20%. It was decided then that her disease had progressed to the point where she would need a double lung and liver transplant to survive. Her family picked up and moved to Durham, NC to be close to Duke so she could begin pulmonary rehab. Heather was officially listed for lungs at the end of February 2014.

After an excruciatingly long nine months, Heather received the life-saving call that there was a set of lungs and a liver for her. Her operation took place on November 13, 2014. Heather remembers waking up afterwards, seeing her loving family, and taking her first deep, pain-free breath. She describes it as nothing short of a miracle. However, her journey was far from over. She had to learn how to walk again, talk again, eat again, and breathe again with her new lungs. She spent two months in the ICU and three months in the pulmonary step-down unit. Her recovery was very difficult, and full of complications, but she stayed strong with her family by her side. She and her family were able to move back home to Richmond, VA in December 2015.

Spreading the word and promoting organ donation has now become a passion of Heather’s. Thanks to her donor, she has been able to become independent again with everyday tasks. She has also started taking online college courses, got a dog, started tap dancing again, and completed her first ever 5k back in April 2016.

In order to give our best support, we are going to stand and fight with Heather and her family, as they continue to fight this life-long battle.