Amanda Atkins of Atlanta remembers visiting a hospital where she was considering getting a lung transplant and hearing the words “end-stage lung disease” over and over. While the words were accurate, every utterance left her more disappointed and demoralized.
Looking for a second opinion, she traveled to Nashville and the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. “That experience was the antithesis of my first experience,” she said. “I felt so cared for immediately. I heard positive statistics, success stories, and I just wanted to do a good job because these people cared. It sounded like they had my back. It sounded like a team of people was there for me.”
That visit led to a successful lung transplant in March 2024, one of a record 99 lung transplants at the Vanderbilt Transplant Center last year. One year later, Atkins has returned to work as an executive producer of video and live events, and she is enjoying hiking, walking her dog and being with family and friends. She is now sharing her story to give hope to those facing a life-changing transplant and to give thanks to her organ donor who made it all possible.
Atkins lived her adult life without any breathing trouble, until the end of 2021. While on a trip to California, she developed a cough that wouldn’t go away. Her doctors told her to wait, that coughs sometimes take time to resolve. But six months later, she was still coughing. She insisted on getting a chest X-ray, which led to a diagnosis of interstitial lung disease, a group of lung disorders that lead to inflammation and scarring of the lungs.
She went to a respiratory specialist. “The doctor said you have two choices, only one of which means you could possibly survive, which was a transplant,” she said. “It was a transplant or nothing.”
Her positive experience with Vanderbilt Health started with her first call for an initial consultation. She spoke with Karen Nicholas, RN, a pretransplant coordinator, “and she was so kind,” Atkins said. “Nobody at this point — nobody — had told me what actually happens during a transplant and what I can expect. And she just took the time, and her empathy and compassion were amazing.
“She was part of the reason that I came here.”
Atkins was so impressed with Nicholas she decided to cancel her evaluation elsewhere.
“I advised her against it,” Nicholas recalled, “and said if you already have it scheduled next week, do it, and I will get the records for your appointment with us. I advised her to meet both teams, then make her decision, but she said she already decided during our conversation. We truly have an amazing, kind and strong team.”
The day of her evaluation in January 2024, several inches of snow fell on Nashville. It took Atkins eight hours to drive to Nashville from Atlanta. But she did.
When she arrived at Vanderbilt, she met with David Erasmus, MD, associate professor of Medicine and medical director of the Lung Transplant Program and Vanderbilt Lung Institute. He cited statistics about successful outcomes, putting her at ease. Her competitive nature came alive with the feeling she had a concrete goal.
“I had something to work for,” she said. “I’m a very optimistic and positive person, and I needed that. I needed to feel like there was hope, and I wanted to enjoy every last minute that I had up until and through the surgery.”
Atkins said her optimistic nature caused her to downplay just how serious her situation was. She was pale and became short of breath easily. She deliberately avoided anywhere with a staircase, knowing she would get too winded trying to navigate it.
“I didn’t feel my hands and feet very much, and I had lost so much weight and muscle mass,” she said. “I just didn’t realize that I was pretty sick.”
Following her consultation and two weeks of testing, Atkins moved to an apartment in Nashville in preparation for transplant. Her mother, Vicki Atkins, came from Connecticut to live with her and be her caregiver. Two days after that, Atkins was placed on the transplant list. She waited by the phone for the call that her lifesaving organ was available, her heart skipping a beat every time she got a phone call with “615” on the caller ID.
She remembers having a dream about a lung transplant coordinator giving her a call, then waking up at 8 a.m. and hearing the phone ring. “I was like, it can’t be her,” she said. “What are the odds? And sure enough it was, and she said, ‘Can you come in this morning?’”
Hours later, she received her lifesaving lung transplant at the hands of Caitlin Demarest, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Thoracic Surgery and associate surgical director of Lung Transplantation. The technique (bilateral anterolateral thoracotomy), which Atkins called “cutting edge,” was accomplished through two incisions. She also had a cryoablation, which numbed her nerves. “When I woke up, I felt great,” Atkins said. “I was ready to walk. I was ready to get up and do things. I didn’t hurt. Yeah, it was pretty amazing.”
Soon, she was on her feet and was released from the hospital after eight days.
“I just remember being so happy to wake up and be able to breathe,” she said. “And especially once I was off oxygen, I just wanted to do all the things. … I think I recovered so quickly, not only because of the expertise at Vanderbilt, but because I was like, let’s walk all the time. My mom will tell you that that’s all I wanted to do. Every day. I was like, let’s just keep walking.”
She began physical rehabilitation at the Vanderbilt Dayani Center to regain the muscle she had lost.
“Amanda’s positive attitude and willingness to participate in physical therapy early after the transplant set up a good platform for recovery,” Erasmus said.
Atkins also wrote to the family of her organ donor, hoping to learn who had made the selfless gift of organs. At the Vanderbilt Transplant Center and elsewhere, there are strict guidelines around how this information can be obtained. Atkins could write a letter that Vanderbilt Health would deliver to the organ procurement organization (OPO) that helped to facilitate her transplant and the OPO, in turn, would deliver to the organ donor’s family, still anonymous to Atkins at the time. If the organ donor’s family desired, they could write a letter back to Atkins.
They did.
“How do you tell somebody thank you for saving your life?” she said. “I just want to honor him and make him proud and carry on any sort of purpose he had as well.”
She credits the decision she made to come to the Vanderbilt Transplant Center for saving her life.
“I could not be happier than I am with this decision,” she said. “This decision was the best one I’ve made in this health care journey. So yeah, I am a big fan of Vanderbilt. Big fan.”
Demarest said, “Ms. Atkins had unwavering dedication to getting back to the life she loves — which she has. Seeing her embrace life after transplant is exactly why we do what we do.”
