An Ontario mother who survived in hospital for six days without lungs before receiving a life-saving transplant said she was completely unaware of the unprecedented steps that had been taken to keep her alive.
Melissa Benoit, a married mother of one, was born with cystic fibrosis. Last year, she developed a lung infection that had spread throughout her body.
In April, Benoit was in an induced coma, on a ventilator and near death when her family gave doctors at Toronto General Hospital the go-ahead to remove her lungs, in an effort to bide time before a double-lung transplant.
In what is believed to be the world’s first procedure of this kind, doctors used state-of-the-art technology to circulate her blood, keeping her alive for six days.
When she woke up, Benoit was unaware of the steps that had been taken to save her life.
“The last day that I remember was Easter Sunday of 2016, and then I woke up in another hospital unable to move, unable to speak and I didn’t know what happened,” Benoit said in an interview with CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
“I remember waking up and my mom was there, and she said, ‘Hi Melissa.’ And I couldn’t say hi and I couldn’t really figure it out but she explained what had happened and I didn’t really believe her at all.”
Benoit said she wasn’t in pain and couldn’t see any of her scars. “So I didn’t really believe that I’d had a lung transplant.”
Benoit said her family made the same decision she would have if she’d been well enough to consent.
“Having a chronic disease like cystic fibrosis meant that you talked about the ifs and the whens, about end-of-life care what would happen in certain situations, which I think, is important for anybody to talk about, even if you don’t have a chronic illness.”
Benoit said her mother and husband, who are joint decision-makers when it comes to her health needs, “knew that I would want to fight to the end as long as there was a reasonable chance of recovery.”
They knew she would “want to fight for my daughter Olivia, I would want to be back with my family again,” she added.
Today, Benoit is feeling “pretty great.” But she still has a way to go in her medical journey.
“Because of how sick I had become here in the ICU, my kidneys shut down and I went into acute kidney failure and unfortunately, they have decided not to recover,” she said. “So I will be requiring a kidney transplant very soon, of which my mom is going to be my living donor.”
Tearing up, Benoit said there were “no words” to describe how it felt when her mother offered to be her donor.
“I just said, ‘thank you.’ But if it was my daughter I would be doing the exact same thing,” Benoit said.
Today, Benoit is relishing being at home with her young daughter, and just being able to do “day-to-day” things.
When she was being discharged after six months in the hospital, Benoit said a nurse suggested her family go on vacation.
“I told her, 'I don’t want to go anywhere except home, I want to enjoy my home again.’”
