It was the hope of a patient Margaret Dillon who had one infection after another as she clung to life on a ventilator. It was the hope of a patient Annie Peoples who died after a long struggle with the advanced stages of a disease we don't often think of as being fatal, Sarcoidosis. It is still the hope of a woman named Emily Williams who at age 51 is trying to come to terms with a diagnosis of advanced lung cancer. But it was also the hope of a patient Joe Lowe who had pulmonary fibrosis, and who three days after a lung transplant was able to do what he had not been able to do in years, run up the stairs. It was the hope of Elizabeth Jackson, a woman who had emphysema and who six weeks after undergoing still controversial lung volume reduction surgery, was able to sing in her church choir for the first time in ten years.
Miracles do happen.
But miracles must be made to happen. Miracles happen whenever we escape our lowly biologic origins and aim to make the world a little better. Miracles happen when scientists unravel the mystery of the human genome and bring us closer to a cure for asthma or cystic fibrosis. Miracles happen when 730 Big Ride bikers pedal 3250 miles to fight lung disease. Miracles happen when 340,000 children listen to the message of Teens Against Tobacco Use.