[Music playing]

Ella DuBro: In the middle of Ohio State's campus around the Oval, there's a hill by Thompson Library, and I couldn't walk up that hill. My vision would go completely white. I couldn't see. 

[Text on screen: Ella DuBro
Double lung transplant recipient]

Ella DuBro: I actually did pass out once from going up that hill. So I learned very quickly, "That hill's not for me. Let's just avoid that altogether." This is definitely an issue and something that I needed to find an answer to.

[Text on screen: Stephen Kirkby, MD 
Lung Transplant Pulmonologist
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center]

Stephen Kirkby, MD: When I first met Ella, she was incredibly sick. She had recently been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and then she was still hoping that medications themselves may be enough. As the months progressed by and it was clear that the medicines were not giving her that ability to walk to class and to go to class and to hang out with friends the way that she wanted to, I think she was realizing that her body was becoming sicker despite the medications.

Ella DuBro: The talk of transplant was finally becoming a reality and I really had to accept this, "This is what's going to happen." And that was really hard for me to accept that, because transplants, especially double lung transplants, are not common and they're also the hardest transplant that your body can go through.

Stephen Kirkby, MD: And so at the time, then, of listing for transplant, she was fully on board with transplant being the way to move forward with life.

Ella DuBro: I ended up meeting my surgeon the morning of my surgery, Dr. Matthew Henn, and I instantly felt safe. I knew he was going to take really good care of me.

[Text on screen: Matthew Henn, MD
Heart/Lung Transplant Surgeon
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center]

Matthew Henn, MD: Immediately we had a connection. I have three daughters myself, and as a parent, it's quite emotional when you're taking care of a young patient and we were very excited about the opportunity to help Ella and her family.

Stephen Kirkby, MD: The reason why we do what we do, it's an amazing blessing to be able to just be a small part of a team that takes care of patients, offers this type of therapy to patients who are so, so sick and wouldn't live long and wouldn't live well without transplant. And to see her doing all these things and now achieving her goals, it's amazing.

Ella DuBro: I was very close in age with my donor. That really motivated me because she made the gracious decision, her and her family, to donate her organs, and that's what saved my life. And so I want to do everything in my power to honor her and to live life to the fullest for her.

[Text on screen: Ohio State Health & Discovery
For more information, visit: wexnermedical.osu.edu/transplant]

[Music fades]