COLUMBUS, Ohio — When a healthy teenager was diagnosed with the flu, she never imagined it would lead to a year-long fight for her life and the need for a double lung transplant.
For most children and adults, a case of the flu can be uncomfortable but manageable, with typical symptoms and recovery. Unfortunately, influenza can be severe and cause life-threatening complications.
One day, 16-year-old Maggie Rising was home sick with the flu, and the next she was in a hospital's intensive care unit.
"I just, one day, just went downhill somehow," Rising said.
"It became pretty clear about four to six weeks after her diagnosis that her lungs were not going to recover, and she was at very high risk of not surviving," Stephen Kirkby, MD, said.
Rising required machines to breathe for her and was referred to Nationwide Children's Hospital to advance her care.
"We're one of the few places in the world that are able to offer life-saving lung transplantation to children who need it," Kirkby said.
The transplant team began preparations as they waited for a match and hoped for good news.
"They came in and they woke me up and they told me I had a set of lungs," Rising said.
"There's a tremendous amount of preparation that goes into providing a lung transplant for any individual, but particularly for someone as sick as what Maggie was," Kirkby said.
Surgery was a success and, slowly, Rising improved.
"It took weeks and weeks and weeks to be able to gradually remove some of the things that we were doing for life support," Kirkby said.
Amazingly, after nine months in the hospital, Rising is now back at school and is working toward returning to her favorite thing — playing clarinet with the marching band.
"It's just been such a big and important part of my life that I just couldn't live without it," Rising said.
She's marching toward the future thanks to a lifesaving organ donation and the tireless efforts of her care team.
"I feel like it's the most selfless gift you could ever give anyone," Rising said.
"We're all committed to the same goal, and that is trying to make people healthier, make a difference in children's lives," Kirkby said. "And that is just such an unbelievable honor."
Rising is a Patient Champion for the 2023 “Light Up the Lawn, Light Up a Life” campaign at Nationwide Children’s. To get involved, click here.