Bernadette L. struggled with a persistent cough.
“My daughter said, ‘Mom, you’re coughing so much.’ She always wanted to take me to the ER. I was stubborn.”
Eventually, Bernadette’s coughing and shortness of breath were so bad she agreed to go with her daughter to the emergency room.
“Within a few minutes, I couldn’t breathe,” Bernadette says. “That’s all I remember.”
When she awoke, Bernadette was in another medical center. She had been airlifted there to obtain treatment for several serious respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia and acute respiratory syndrome.
“I was in the hospital for three months,” Bernadette says.
Bernadette was eventually diagnosed with a rare disorder called tracheobronchomalacia (TBM). With this condition, the walls of the airways (tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs) are weak, which can cause the airway to become narrow or collapse.
Bernadette remained active with her ministry to unhoused people, despite her worsening condition.
“My breathing was terrible, but I still did what I did,” she says.
But when Bernadette’s trachea collapsed, she needed a tracheostomy to breathe. She was homebound, intubated six times, and almost died more than once.
“To not be able to breathe is the most horrible thing anybody can go through,” she says.
Finding Temple in time
For a long time, Bernadette and her family had looked for a doctor who specialized in tracheobronchomalacia surgery. Their search eventually led to the Temple Lung Center and thoracic surgeon Charles T. Bakhos, MD, MBA, MS, FACS.
“The day that I met him in his office, I just knew and had the faith that this is the one,” Bernadette says. “He’s going to give me a new life.”
Temple is home to the only dedicated TBM program in the Philadelphia region. Treatment options for the condition range from medications and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy to surgery.
Due to the severity of her illness, Bernadette was a candidate for a complex surgery called tracheobronchoplasty. In this procedure, surgeons reinforce the back of the windpipe with a mesh to prevent its collapse. This stabilizes the airway, allowing better breathing.
Bernadette underwent tracheobronchoplasty surgery in September 2023.
“Dr. Bakhos came in my room the next day and was like, ‘I can’t believe how good you look,’” Bernadette says.
“People said I looked like I was in my 30s, that I just glowed and was alive and happy,” she adds. “It was a great surgery, awesome.”
About two days later, she was up and walking. Bernadette hasn’t forgotten the impact one member of Temple’s Intensive Care Unit staff had on her recovery.
“There was a gentleman named Chris,” Bernadette says. “He never left my side. He stayed with me. He prayed with me.”
Over the next six months, Bernadette continued her recovery at home, which included outpatient physical therapy.
‘A whole new life for me’
These days, Bernadette is still walking every day and enjoying more of her treasured activities, like spending time with her grandchildren.
“I am on the move,” she says. “I’m doing amazing.”
She’s also back in church, where she plans to give a testimonial about her remarkable journey.
Speaking about her recovery, Bernadette credits her faith in God and is grateful to the Temple team and surgeon, Dr. Bakhos.
“He did a remarkable job,” she says. “He has given me my life back. He’s given my airway back.”
She reflected on how it felt to breathe without intubation after her surgery.
“It felt wonderful,” Bernadette says. “I didn’t have to be scared anymore. That first breath was a whole new life for me, and it’s getting better and better each day.”
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