Lung transplant patients face tough odds
San Francisco Chronicle | Erin Allday
Photo: Rowan Jimenez, recipient of a double lung transplant, stretches after a run on the bayfront in Richmond. Lung transplant survival rates have improved by only about 5 percent in 10 years. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle / SF
In almost every way that matters, Rowan Jimenez's life has returned to normal in the four years since he had two new lungs transplanted into his chest.
He regularly bikes 7 miles to his job in Richmond, and he runs and rock climbs. He sings with a band and plays with his active 9-year-old daughter. Every day, he breathes deeply and thinks how lucky he is.
But Jimenez, like almost all lung transplant patients, is also keenly aware how short life can be. And while lung transplants have become increasingly common - and increasingly successful - over the past decade, they're still among the riskiest transplant procedures. Patients have only slightly better than even odds of surviving five years after a transplant.
"A lot of people say that when you hit the five-year benchmark, it's downhill from there," said Jimenez, 44, who has a condition called scleroderma that led to him getting a double lung transplant at UCSF in September 2008. "But I've met people who are nine or 10 years post transplant. So I'm looking forward to four more years - 10 more, 20 more."
Survival rates after 1st year
Jimenez may very well have a decade or more left on what he calls his "recycled" lungs, but the numbers aren't in his favor, and overall survival rates have improved by only about 5 percent over the past 10 years.
He regularly bikes 7 miles to his job in Richmond, and he runs and rock climbs. He sings with a band and plays with his active 9-year-old daughter. Every day, he breathes deeply and thinks how lucky he is.
But Jimenez, like almost all lung transplant patients, is also keenly aware how short life can be. And while lung transplants have become increasingly common - and increasingly successful - over the past decade, they're still among the riskiest transplant procedures. Patients have only slightly better than even odds of surviving five years after a transplant.
"A lot of people say that when you hit the five-year benchmark, it's downhill from there," said Jimenez, 44, who has a condition called scleroderma that led to him getting a double lung transplant at UCSF in September 2008. "But I've met people who are nine or 10 years post transplant. So I'm looking forward to four more years - 10 more, 20 more."
Survival rates after 1st year
Jimenez may very well have a decade or more left on what he calls his "recycled" lungs, but the numbers aren't in his favor, and overall survival rates have improved by only about 5 percent over the past 10 years.
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