Guide Helps the Newly Diagnosed Navigate PH

The return to normalcy and slower progression of the virus are two reasons Holly Szmutko of Valparaiso, Indiana, believes people should get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Holly’s PAH progressed quickly after her January 2019 diagnosis. Her care team decided a double lung transplant was the best option to improve Holly’s health and quality of life.

Holly was listed for a new pair of lungs Feb. 24 and received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine three weeks earlier with no issues or side effects. Her team encouraged her get vaccinated before her transplant, but there is a chance she will receive the call for transplant surgery before her second vaccine.

All donors are tested before transplant. It’s possible a donor was exposed to COVID-19 but hadn’t tested positive. Holly says she would prefer to receive her second vaccine dose before her transplant, but she will take the lungs whenever she gets called.

“My team and I agreed that one vaccine is better than none,” she says. “If I get called the day before I’m scheduled for my second vaccine, we will proceed with transplant. That is more important.”

Most of Holly’s family have received the vaccine, and she encourages anyone who is immunocompromised, has a terminal illness or elderly to get the vaccine if they can. “Together, we can make a difference, improve our health and protect loved ones,” she says.

“If this vaccine can prevent deaths from COVID or protect you from having a severe case or no case at all, it is completely worth it. If one person can be saved, that is one person who gets to be with their loved ones another day.”

Alberta Wright

Marilyn Hanft

New PHA Resource Learn About PH That Occurs at Birth

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) often is thought of as a disease of middle age and older people. But as many families can attest, that simply isn’t the case.

PH affects people of all ages. In fact, it can arise the moment someone is born.

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) recently published a new educational handout about persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). PPHN, which occurs when blood vessels in the lungs don’t open fully at birth, can cause serious issues.

The handout explains that babies get most of their oxygen before birth from their mothers through the placenta. The blood vessels in the lungs are closed until a baby takes its first breath at birth. If the blood vessels remain partially or completely constricted, blood doesn’t flow adequately through the lungs to the brain and body.

Although there is no known cause for PPHN, several risk factors exist, including certain tissue and fluid buildup, respiratory distress syndrome or diaphragmatic hernia.

Sometimes PPHN resolves on its own. Other times, expert medical care and interventions might be necessary to help an infant recover. Those interventions include PH medications, nitric oxide and a blood oxygenation system called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

PPHN — like any other type of PH — varies in its effects, how it’s treated and its ultimate outcome. But knowledge can empower families to ask the right questions and guide the care their baby needs.

That’s why PHA created the free handout about the disease process, risk factors, treatment and recovery. Download the guide at PHAssociation.org/Pediatrics.

Whether you’re a parent or family member of an infant, school-aged child or an adult living with PH, PHA has resources to help you find information, support and hope. Check out PHA’s support programs, informational videos and publications, live events and activities at PHAssociation.org/ Pediatrics.