Potential patients are examined by interventional pulmonology specialist Joseph Thachuthara-George , M . D ., whose advanced bronchoscopy skills and latest technology expedite patients to treatment . Dr . Thachuthara-George began his work with the LCS in December of 2021 .
? Once a suspected lesion is noted on screening CT , we perform further evaluation which includes risk stratification of the nodules as well as diagnostic and staging procedures ,? Dr . Thachuthara-George says . ? We have increased the number of clinics and have doubled the number of patients receiving advanced procedures to keep up with the increase in lung cancer screening ,? he continues .
The LCS program has recently increased the scope of its screening and testing efforts , with recent supplemental funding used to start a mobile screening program in Anniston along with clinical trials to predict early risk for lung cancer through less invasive methods like nasal swabs .
Devika Das , M . D . and Joseph Thachuthara-George , M . D .
Photography : Carolyn Walsh
To learn more about the LCS program , contact program coordinator Sasha Smith BSN , RN , at ( 205 ) 933-8101 ( ext . 334199 ) or sasha . smith @ va . gov .
Patient Overcomes the Odds to Receive New Lungs
Photo provided by Steve Harrison
On their wedding day 34 years ago , when Steve and Lynne Harrison vowed to be at each other ? s side in sickness and in health , neither could have imagined the journey ahead . and the couple ? s three adult children to arrange for end-of-life care . ? Steve didn ? t want to die in a hospital on a machine ,? Lynne says . ? He was going to go home , whatever that looked like .?
From Resignation to Hope
While the family was in meetings with the palliative care team , Steve received word that he ? d been referred to the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute ( CTI ) for a double-lung transplant . On Nov . 13 , 2021 , the CTI sent an air ambulance to fly Steve to UAB . ? It happened so quickly that it felt like getting hit by a tornado ,? Steve remembers .
Steve , 55 , says he was ? healthy as a horse ? and working as a construction foreman when he contracted the Delta variant of COVID-19 in September 2021 . Unvaccinated , Steve ? s initial flu-like symptoms quickly snowballed , prompting him to leave his home in Dayton , Tenn ., and spend almost two months in a nearby hospital ? s intensive care unit .
His doctor believed that going on a ventilator was the best course of action , but Steve resisted ? even though the doctor told Lynne that , without one , Steve ? s chance of survival was only 30 %. ? It was a fight ,? Steve says . ? But if something happened , I wanted to be able to talk to my kids .? Instead of a ventilator , Steve opted to lay on his belly and wear a mask with high-flow oxygen . ? The mask wore my nose down to the bone ,? he recalls .
After a stint at a physical rehabilitation facility , Steve returned home , but only for five days . He developed COVID-related acute respiratory distress syndrome ( ARDS ) and ended up in the emergency room . ? They thought I was going to die ,? Steve says .
In fact , the palliative care team was working with Lynne
Charles Hoopes , MD , his surgeon and the CTI surgical director for thoracic transplant , notes that Steve ? s situation ? known as a ? salvage transplant ? ? comes with unique challenges . ? A transplant is more complicated when a patient has no history of chronic disease , has no long-term relationship with the medical team , and is not expecting it ,? Dr . Hoopes says . ? Psychologically , it ? s a challenge .?
Lynne acknowledges that difficulty . ? Most people who receive organs are sick , and they ? re able to mentally adjust to the fact that they ? re sick ,? she says . ? We went from sick to dying really fast . It ? s an adjustment .?
The family faced another hurdle in December 2021 , when they were told that donor lungs were available , but then the transplant didn ? t proceed . ? The good people at UAB had become our family and everyone was disappointed , but I knew that the good Lord kept me there for a reason ,? Steve says .
While in the UAB Heart and Lung Transplant Intensive Care Unit , Steve Harrison was encouraged by his pulmonologist , Thomas Khaleekal , MD , to start a walking
PULMONARY , ALLERGY , AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE