Orla Tinsley, an Irish-born journalist living in New York, has had to put her work in hold and is now on life support at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. As a sufferer herself, the young woman has campaigned extensively on behalf of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients in the city. Tinsley believes that the CF patients in New York are not being supported adequately and should have access to better services and care.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that can affect many different organs in the body, but the lungs are often where symptoms appear the strongest. Sufferers may experience breathing difficulties and frequently cough up mucus due to lung infections. The disorder can also affect the functioning of kidneys, liver, intestines, and pancreas. Other symptoms include sinus infections, clubbing of the fingers and toes, and fatty stool. It is most common in people of north European descent. You can learn more about cystic fibrosis by clicking here.
For Orla, her lung function continued to worsen; in cases like hers, a lung transplant is her best option. As a journalist, she has made CF one of the focuses of her writing. This is not the first time that she has been called in hoping for a transplant. In fact, on six other occasions she was summoned with the hope of receiving one, but in each instance she was not a match with the donor.
Originally, the young woman moved to New York back in 2014, but her respiratory condition worsened rapidly to the point that it is impossible to travel back to her hometown of Kildare, Ireland. In almost all CF cases, chronic lung infection occurs, and many patients take antibiotics on a regular basis. However, over time the bacteria will develop antibiotic resistance, making double lung transplants the only viable option for long term survival of the patient. Double lung transplants are the norm when treating the disease, because leaving a single infected lung with the new, healthy lung would make it easy for the infection to spread from one to the other.
Orla encouraged her followers on social media to carry organ donor cards as she waits for news about her new lungs. Read the source article at World News.
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