Respiratory Stories
Patients visit our campus every day, seeking our expert care for respiratory diseases. Read our patients' stories and learn how you can support our work in the research and treatment of respiratory conditions.
Wyoming Family Can’t Say Enough ‘Good Things’ About National Jewish Health
Christian McMackin no longer struggles for air. The youngster came to National Jewish Health in 2016 after his parents, Misti and Chris noticed that their son was coughing, wheezing and having difficulty breathing. After spending a week at the nation’s #1 respiratory hospital, Christian’s family had concrete answers about his condition. Misti continues to be pleased with the care her son receives at National Jewish Health and recommends the hospital to others dealing with asthma.
Changing Gears and Adding Years: A Hot Rodder’s Recovery Story
In September of 2021, Cascio-Weldon got sick with what seemed like just a cold. When his symptoms worsened, he visited his local doctor, who informed him that he was simply dealing with post-COVID syndrome, as he had been infected a few months earlier. However, this wasn’t the case. “Come December, I just wasn’t getting any better. In fact, I was getting worse. My skin was gray, literally gray,” Cascio-Weldon said.
Back in the Game
Last spring, eight-year-old Genesis Avila began waking up during the night struggling to breathe. Her rescue inhaler, designed to relax the airways and allow air to move in and out of the lungs, was not helping.
Noah Fitzsimmons
During his first 14 months of life, Noah violently shook his body because he itched from head to toe with severe eczema. Today, Noah is a thriving 7-year-old, and his mother credits National Jewish Health with significantly improving the quality of her son’s life so he could just be a normal kid.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Gives Artist a New Beginning
Rozales paints a lot of things, but an intimidating picture isn’t one of them. You would never know how tough she really is until you hear her story.
A Medical Team Fit for a Determined Toddler
Rozales paints a lot of things, but an intimidating picture isn’t one of them. You would never know how tough she really is until you hear her story.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Gives Artist a New Beginning
Rozales paints a lot of things, but an intimidating picture isn’t one of them. You would never know how tough she really is until you hear her story.
Finding Care for Sarcoidosis in My Own Backyard
When patients are diagnosed with rare or unusual health conditions, understanding what to do next or where to find care can be daunting. For Diane Wein, a globe-trotting married mother of one, it took a team of doctors at National Jewish Health to get her back on her feet.
Team of Doctors Joins Couple to Battle Lung Cancer
Researchers are evaluating strategies to combine immunotherapy with chemotherapy and to use it at earlier stages to further improve outcomes. They are also working to understand and prevent skin rashes, the most common side effect, which can be severe enough to interrupt therapy for some patients.
Patient Pays It Forward with Lifesaving Blended Gift
Mike and Jackie Etemad support National Jewish Health for two reasons — the
free-of-charge, lifesaving care Mike received in the 1950s and the cutting-edge
research conducted today.
Insuring the Future of Collaborative Care
Shannon LaFrance-Corum’s story starts out like many patient stories from National Jewish Health. A life-threatening respiratory illness that remained un-diagnosable until visiting Denver. What makes her story different is how she is choosing to end it
Generous Board Member Blends Giving Through IRA, Estate
As a lifetime asthmatic who has been a patient at National Jewish Health, Roger Gibson gives to the nation’s leading respiratory hospital because he recognizes how important the institution is to those living with lung, heart and immune-related diseases.
Debra Kates Shaw
Debra Kates Shaw asked National Jewish Health cardiologist Andrew Freeman, MD, for a second opinion about her husband’s heart condition. She never imagined that his recommendations would include lifestyle changes instead of prescription medicine.
Compounding Legacies
The butterfly effect – the idea that actions as small as the flap of a butterfly’s wings can lead to great movement beyond the immediate environment. At National Jewish Health, we see this taking place through patients and donors like Laurie. After we restored her health, she was able to resume her efforts improving the lives of myriad others through her work, volunteering, teaching and philanthropy.
An Unparalleled Approach to Care
“One of the biggest reasons I support National Jewish Health with my IRA required minimum distribution is because as a former nurse, I love that they teach doctors from other hospitals and practices how to treat unique illnesses like the one I have,” Martha Crothers said.
Thorough & Expert Care: Family Twice Blessed
Successful treatment of David Espinosa’s scleroderma inspired a return to National Jewish Health when 8-year-old Remy developed frightening episodes of breathlessness.
Teen Returned to Health
Mouhamed, now 14, spent his childhood as a healthy young man who enjoyed socializing with friends, playing football and spending time around animals. He showed no signs of serious health conditions – until late 2018 after returning from vacation in Algeria.
Riding the Rails
Tom Montgomery, of Cambridge, Illinois, visited National Jewish Health by rail to clarify his diagnosis and change his treatment plan.
Rare Genetic Disorder Drives Precision Therapy
It got to the point that Jennifer Gleason’s 5-year- old daughter cried every time she had to leave her mother.
Natalie Sublet
Natalie Sublet suffered smoke inhalation that injured her lungs during a house fire in 2016. The specialized care available at National Jewish Health for chronically ill children allows the first-grader to attend school with peers, rather than being taught at home by a tutor. Her mother, Angie, is grateful to the school for providing Natalie a quality education and a sense of normalcy.
Digging Deeper to Find Answers
When breathing difficulties forced Nancy Deans to her knees, she had to give up her passion, barrel racing. Pulmonologist Don Rollins, MD, and his colleagues got Nancy back in the saddle.
Morgridge Academy Provides Peace of Mind for Parents of Chronically Ill Children
Dane Orion Cuesta is a living miracle. The 12-year-old is among a rare group of children who survive a double lung transplant. To assure that Dane not only survives, but also thrives, he attends Morgridge Academy for chronically ill children, a free day school.
Malik & Kaori Davenport
Katie Hastie knows her boys, Malik and Kaori Davenport, will receive a quality education and that their health will be closely monitored every day at the National Jewish Health Morgridge Academy for chronically ill children. She doesn’t believe another school in Colorado could provide her that peace of mind. Malik are Kaori, who are in the fifth and sixth grades, respectively, were both born with cystic fibrosis.
Looking Beyond the Lungs
Being knocked down by unrelenting breathing problems was not something with which Travis White was familiar. In his early 70s, Travis was living an active retirement, splitting his time between Austin, Texas and Incline Village, Nevada, when his breathing problems came about somewhat suddenly.
Little Body, Big Battle
What started with a cough and a runny nose, quickly became much more alarming for 17-month-old Ivan Paez’s parents. “All of a sudden he started wheezing, so we took him to a local hospital,” Ivan’s mom Crystal Medrano said. A chest X-ray was performed and Medrano said doctors told her “he just has a cough and will be fine.” Ivan was sent home, but by the next day, Ivan’s cough and other symptoms were only getting worse. He also began developing a fever, prompting a second trip to the hospital. This time, Ivan was diagnosed with croup. “They gave him a dose of steroids and then they sent us home,” Medrano states.
Lewis Hoch
Unable to control his asthma as a young man, Lewis Hoch moved to Denver in 1970 to seek treatment at National Jewish Health and to start college at the University of Denver. The quality care he received at the nation’s #1 respiratory hospital helped him regain control of his asthma and taught him how to better manage his condition.
Specialized Care Helping Cystic Fibrosis Patient Breathe Easier
“I experienced a new level of interest, expertise and professionalism at National Jewish Health and Saint Joseph Hospital. The resources here are incredible.”
Kendrick Trujillo
Breath control is something every performer must master. For dancers, good breathing technique can add not only to endurance, but also to fluidity and grace. It can add power to an actor’s speech. Breath control is especially important and challenging for 18-year old Kendrick Trujillo, who suffers from severe asthma and allergies. Thanks to his multidisciplinary team at National Jewish Health, Trujillo has mastered breath control well enough to pursue dance and theatre studies as he heads off to college.
Living the Sweet Life with Alpha-1
Judy got the test for Alpha-1, and it came back positive. She began weekly augmentation therapy at National Jewish Health and has felt a great relief of her symptoms.
His Life…And His Choice
When Caleb Norder first tried vaping before his freshman year in high school, it seemed fun and cool. Everybody was doing it — kids in the back of the bus, in the school bathrooms and even in class.
Freedom to Breathe
Nearly 44 years ago, Nancy George was diagnosed with severe asthma. Despite a variety of asthma medications, Nancy was hospitalized two to three times a year for decades. Her condition worsened in recent years.
Former Asthma Patient Runs 100th Half-Marathon for National Jewish Health
Fifty years after receiving life-saving asthma care at National Jewish Health, Kevin Buron
used his passion for running to raise funds for the hospital.
Eric White
Eric White began New Year’s Day 2016 as many did, feeling a little tired and rundown from celebrating the evening before. Within 24 hours, the previously healthy 39-year-old would be fighting for breath — and his life.
Carole Goldstein
Most birthday celebrants choose to spend their birthdays with those most near and dear to them. That is precisely why I chose to have my semi-annual checkup at National Jewish Health on my 71st birthday on May 10, 2016.
Bettyann Slatten
Bettyann Slatten of St. Louis has been to some of the best hospitals in the country – including Washington University – and going to National Jewish Health was eye opening. Read Bettyann’s Story.
Pilot Returns to the Skies After Bronchiectasis Treatment
In 2017, as he began to suffer multiple bouts of bronchitis and mysterious sinus infections, pilot Tim Farquhar’s wings were in danger of being clipped.
A Long Journey
Twelve-year-old AJ Salgado-Rael has been accustomed to taking health precautions for as long as he can remember. “He was three when doctors discovered he has XLA immunodeficiency,” Sabrina Salgado-Rael, AJ’s mom, said. XLA immunodeficiency is an inherited inability to make antibodies that help fight infections. AJ receives antibody infusions regularly at National Jewish Health to strengthen his immunity.
Finding the Answer
Dr. Silveira found herself becoming the patient. She developed a persistent, dry cough, shortness of breath and fatigue that no amount of naps, long nights of sleep or cutting back on work could cure. Eventually, her declining health hastened her retirement. “I loved what I did and didn’t have any plans to retire, but moving and shaking was not a possibility at the end of my career,” she said. “The fatigue just really slowed me down in terms of steam.”
Life Gets Back on the Green
Even over the phone, Michael Brown’s voice is a hypodermic of pure energy. Indeed, the first word neurologist Jinny Tavee, MD, uses to describe him these days is “ebullient.” But it wasn’t always this way.
Joining Forces To Fight Deployment-Related Lung Disease
John Sepulveda arrived in Afghanistan in 2011 in peak form and proud to serve in the Air Force. His role was crucial, and he didn’t want to let down his fellow airmen, or his country. So, when he got sick less than a month into his deployment, he decided to tough it out. “That was the worst thing I could have done,” said Sepulveda.
Knee Surgery Found Hidden Lung Disease
Cyndi Fonda, of Bozeman, Mont., like many Americans, thought she was just out of shape. A review of Cyndi’s pre-op chest X-ray suggested she could have a non-contagious condition related to tuberculosis called nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM).
Finding Answers at National Jewish Health
What do you do when you are allergic to the very medicine that’s supposed to help you? Where do you turn when years of treatment don’t make you feel better? Meet Caleb, Jerry and Adam, each of whom struggled with life-threatening health issues before finding National Jewish Health. They came here as a last resort, and found doctors and researchers who listened and found answers that changed their lives.
The Best Place to Be for Long-COVID Treatment
When Janelle and her family tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2020, she never expected that she and her son, Graden, would suffer from a wide array of long-haul complications.
Searching For Answers
The second time Lillian Downs got COVID-19, she came to National Jewish Health. When infectious disease expert Jared Eddy, MD, saw Lillian before an antibody infusion, he realized that she needed a more extensive evaluation.
Searching For Answers
The second time Lillian Downs got COVID-19, she came to National Jewish Health. When infectious disease expert Jared Eddy, MD, saw Lillian before an antibody infusion, he realized that she needed a more extensive evaluation.
Long COVID Odyssey Ends in Recovery
Sophia Laderman's long COVID symptoms had become so severe that she could hardly stand up without blacking out. She crawled from room to room, and her husband carried her up the stairs of their Denver-area home. “I couldn’t take care of myself,” said Laderman. “At times I worried that I was going to die.”
Uncertainty and Fear Surround Food Allergies
Megan Hanna describes the challenges of raising and protecting a young child with life-threatening food allergies.
Madison Hassett
When milk touched Madison’s skin it looked like a severe burn. Read how her mom, beat food allergy fears after getting a second opinion at National Jewish Health for Kids.
Ian Kearney
Ian Kearney is an 18-year-old from Las Vegas, who now attends college in Iowa and plays Division 3 soccer. He was born with food allergies and has had to restrict his eating to the same few foods that he knows are safe.
Finding Answers for Josiah
Josiah and Emily are siblings who both have chronic health issues. Josiah has severe asthma, eczema, environmental allergies and recurrent anaphylaxis. Emily has asthma that affects her ability to be physically active. Josiah often visited the emergency department weekly and missed a considerable amount of school – until he was referred to National Jewish Health and Morgridge Academy. The treatment that Josiah and Emily received at National Jewish Health for Kids turned their health completely around. They became students at Morgridge Academy, which has provided the special care than they need to keep their conditions managed and stay in class. Read Josiah’s and Emily’s story.
An Innovative Cure Gave This Child a New Lease on Life
Caeleb MacDonald is one of a handful of people in the world allergic to the only medication that can treat his hemophilia. Unable to receive a blood-clotting factor, he suffers unstoppable bleeding in his joints.
Help for Leylany
Every year almost 10 percent of babies in the United States are born prematurely. These tiniest of patients must be cared for in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) where they receive care that helps them survive, grow and develop. The challenges, however, are not over when premature babies leave the NICU.