Solana Beach woman’s double-lung transplant marks 10 years of life

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A Solana Beach woman is celebrating a decade of life thanks to a double-lung transplant. As October marks National Healthy Lung Month, LeeAnn Pusateri is urging others to consider organ donation after her own close call with death.

“When you’re that close to death, it really hits you how impermanent life is and how important it is to make time for the people you love while they’re here,” Pusateri said.

In 2009, after what she thought would be a routine chest X-ray, Pusateri received devastating news — she was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a severe lung disease. Her doctor told her she had only three to five years to live.

“I screamed and said, ‘No, no, no,’” Pusateri recalled. “I have a three-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son.”

Despite her active lifestyle, which included running five miles a day, the disease got worse. After years of trying different treatments with no success, Pusateri was placed on the lung transplant waiting list in 2013. A year later, she found a match and received her transplant.

This past weekend, Pusateri celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the procedure that saved her life.

In the years since, she has dedicated herself to raising awareness about organ donation, speaking to over 30,000 students at high schools and universities across the country. She encourages young people to sign up to be organ donors at the DMV or through the California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry website.

“I’ve had many students come back and tell me they talked to their parents, and now their whole family has signed up to be donors,” Pusateri said. “It’s the best way I can honor the gift I was given.”

Pusateri says one donor can save up to eight lives, and she is forever grateful for the gift that allowed her to keep breathing.

“I hope the donor’s family knows that part of their loved one is still here, breathing through me every day,” she said. “It’s my responsibility to care for someone else who couldn’t be here.”

Lifesharing, a division of UC San Diego Health, is also advocating for more tissue donors. One donor can help dozens of people, they said.

For more information on becoming a donor, visit the California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry.