An Oklahoma firefighter is making what hospital officials call a “remarkable” recovery after surviving COVID-19 and receiving a double lung transplant at a hospital in Arizona.According to Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Capt. Randy Blake with the Stillwater Fire Department was first admitted to a hospital in his hometown after contracting COVID-19 in October. He was later taken to the Oklahoma Heart Institute in Tulsa.“You guys saved my life,” Blake said to the health care workers who helped him. “I’m forever grateful. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”Hospital officials said that before being diagnosed with COVID-19, Blake, the father of four, had no preexisting conditions, was in excellent physical shape and made it a point to take good care of himself. Blake eventually had to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for more than a month, officials said. He also had a tracheotomy and underwent several procedures to treat blood clots that had formed as a result of the infection.Essentially an artificial lung that oxygenates the blood, ECMO can be used to help support patients while their lungs recover, hospital officials said. Although it is not always a treatment option, ECMO can help some patients recover from severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19. Although Blake was able to improve and come off of ECMO in December, COVID-19 caused severe and irreversible lung injury, and hospital officials said he required a lung transplant to survive.Blake said that one of his physicians suggested that he would be a good candidate for a double lung transplant and called someone he knew in Arizona. “Before I knew it, I was on a medical transport plane to St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute in Phoenix. The team at St. Joseph’s worked so quickly, so diligently and with such compassion that not long after I arrived at St. Joseph’s in January, I had a new pair of donor lungs,” Blake said. Being hospitalized for nearly four months, Blake lost 55 pounds of muscle and spent two weeks in St. Joseph’s Barrow Neurological Institute Neuro-Rehabilitation Center to retrain his muscles and relearn what most would consider basic tasks, according to hospital officials. “Randy is doing wonderfully, and we couldn’t be happier that he’s ready to go home. He is no longer on oxygen and is working hard in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy,” said Sofya Tokman, MD, Blake’s pulmonologist at St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute. “In fact, just a few days before his discharge, I saw him walking and lifting weights.”Blake said he hopes his story will inspire other individuals and families who are facing similar situations. He was discharged from the rehab unit on Friday.St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute was the third lung transplant program in the country to perform a lung transplant as a result of lung damage from COVID-19, and Blake’s case is Norton’s fourth post-COVID-19 lung transplant, according to officials.
An Oklahoma firefighter is making what hospital officials call a “remarkable” recovery after surviving COVID-19 and receiving a double lung transplant at a hospital in Arizona.
According to Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Capt. Randy Blake with the Stillwater Fire Department was first admitted to a hospital in his hometown after contracting COVID-19 in October. He was later taken to the Oklahoma Heart Institute in Tulsa.
“You guys saved my life,” Blake said to the health care workers who helped him. “I’m forever grateful. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
Hospital officials said that before being diagnosed with COVID-19, Blake, the father of four, had no preexisting conditions, was in excellent physical shape and made it a point to take good care of himself.
Blake eventually had to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for more than a month, officials said. He also had a tracheotomy and underwent several procedures to treat blood clots that had formed as a result of the infection.
Essentially an artificial lung that oxygenates the blood, ECMO can be used to help support patients while their lungs recover, hospital officials said. Although it is not always a treatment option, ECMO can help some patients recover from severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19.
Although Blake was able to improve and come off of ECMO in December, COVID-19 caused severe and irreversible lung injury, and hospital officials said he required a lung transplant to survive.
Blake said that one of his physicians suggested that he would be a good candidate for a double lung transplant and called someone he knew in Arizona.
“Before I knew it, I was on a medical transport plane to St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute in Phoenix. The team at St. Joseph’s worked so quickly, so diligently and with such compassion that not long after I arrived at St. Joseph’s in January, I had a new pair of donor lungs,” Blake said.
Being hospitalized for nearly four months, Blake lost 55 pounds of muscle and spent two weeks in St. Joseph’s Barrow Neurological Institute Neuro-Rehabilitation Center to retrain his muscles and relearn what most would consider basic tasks, according to hospital officials.
“Randy is doing wonderfully, and we couldn’t be happier that he’s ready to go home. He is no longer on oxygen and is working hard in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy,” said Sofya Tokman, MD, Blake’s pulmonologist at St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute. “In fact, just a few days before his discharge, I saw him walking and lifting weights.”
Blake said he hopes his story will inspire other individuals and families who are facing similar situations. He was discharged from the rehab unit on Friday.
St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute was the third lung transplant program in the country to perform a lung transplant as a result of lung damage from COVID-19, and Blake’s case is Norton’s fourth post-COVID-19 lung transplant, according to officials.
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