“Mom, I’m coming. I made it. I live, I breathe” – The touching post of the first patient with cystic fibrosis in Greece who woke up from sedation

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23-year-old Anastasia woke up after 32 days in an artificial coma

I’m going home. I’m writing this and I don’t believe it. I’m going home! I’m going home!!! Mom, I’m coming. I made it. I live, breathe, walk. LIVE. How many times have I wondered if I will make it through these months? And I did it! I am alive. Even now, I think I’m dreaming. How the hell did I do that?” the 23-year-old wrote in an emotional post on Instagram that reveals her thirst for life Anastasia Tassoula.

The 23-year-old girl became the first patient with cystic fibrosis in Greece who woke up from sedation (and worldwide the first to wake up after so many days) and wanted to share this happy news with a post on her personal Instagram account.

In her long post, she talks about her fight after 32 days in an induced coma, the hardships she went through and thanks everyone who helped her smile again today.

Anastasia Tasoula’s post

Day 0. My blood dioxide went up, at 120 they said, my lungs gave out and I experienced a temporary schizophrenia. For some hours.

32 days in an artificial coma: The first cystic fibrosis patient to wake up from sedation in Greece (and worldwide the first to wake up after so many days).

108 days on awake VV ECMO (Extracorporeal Lung Life Support): The first cystic fibrosis patient to endure this long on this machine and come back alive.

162 days with tracheostomies: Do you have any idea what it’s like to live without being able to make a sound? Not being able to call for help when you’re choking on mucus in a bed and at the same time being…

180 days (almost) paralyzed and on my back: Maybe all that was moving about me were my hands, and those were because I was using them to communicate (beyond uttering words with my lips without a voice).

221 days in hospital. In a room. Alone. Or not so alone all the time.

And A LUNG TRANSPLANT after…

I’m going home. I’m writing this and I don’t believe it. I’m going home! I’m going home!!! Mom, I’m coming. I made it. I live, breathe, walk. LIVE..

How many times have I wondered if I will make it through these months? And I did it! I am alive.

Even now, I think I’m dreaming. How the hell did I do that?

I breathe without panting, without coughing. I have been coughing for days. I have new lungs.

I had the stubbornness, the courage and the strength, I hurt them all (as one soul says) and I managed to live.

I managed to win a battle bigger than me, with a smile on my face and with all my enormous strength.

And of course I had no other choice. I could die, obviously, but it’s boring just thinking about it. I don’t have time for boring situations either. Life is beautiful when you live it.

But apparently new lungs don’t exist unless…

There is a donor: You are 6 times more likely to need a transplant yourself than to donate. But with the possibility of being able to donate your organs after death, why say no? Each person can save 8 lives. And because a man donated his lungs, I am alive and forever grateful. But I will return to this creature in a later episode. Until then, do your part and be sure to sign up for the register of donors and donors by clicking here. Because without organs, there is no life. And there certainly wouldn’t be a life full of health and deep breaths for me.

New lungs and new life does not exist without..

My special and perfect doctor, pulmonologist intensivist director and professor, with a “very pleasant” sense of humor, who took care and takes care every day that I stay alive, healthy and breathing. And which I will come back to in the next episode. Grateful to call you my doctor Iraklis Tsagkaris.

Transplant coordinator Manos Chimonis who for months every day reminded me to smile and that I will make it. For all the help so far and from now on, thank you. The coordinators Paris Vlacho and Irini Kitsou of O.K.K. , thank you!

The unreal doctors and nurses of the 2nd ICU of Atticus, ICU and 6th floor of the O.K.K. who took care of me every day for months, rejoiced with my every joy and cried with me with every cry of despair and fear. The former you kept me alive until I could breathe on my own and the latter you taught me to breathe, walk and laugh again. And an equally big thank you to the University Cardiac Surgery Clinic (doctors and extracorporeal circulation technicians), for the care and maintenance of the ECMO that kept me alive until the transplant.

I would not exist without the excellent surgeons Themistoklis Hamogeorgakis, Konstantinos Ieromonachos and Antigoni Kolliopoulou who successfully placed the wonderful lungs from which I breathe at this moment.

And finally and best of all, I certainly wouldn’t have been able to recover psychologically, feel safe for my breath and walk again without my beloved physiotherapist (and friend) Fai Kalomiris and her team Sophie, George, Panagiotis.

Go on like this. You save lives and you certainly saved mine many times over these months..

And the episodes continue…

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