Video by Julie Carasone
Olivia Maniace, 20, of Batavia returned home to Batavia this afternoon after she underwent a lung transplant on October 30th at the Cleveland Clinic. She was greeted by friends and family at the truck parking lot at the Batavia exit on the thruway. Engine 11 with the City of Batavia Fire Department provided a firetruck escort home.
One of the first things that Olivia wants to do is to be able to run again.
She previously participated in track at Batavia High School.
“I am looking forward to running and going to the gym,” Olivia says. Olivia is also looking to get back to work at her Foundation, Liv- Luv- Breathe- Care Packages.
To make a donation or for more information you can e-mail Olivia at livluvbreathe@gmail.com or go to her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/livluvbreathe/
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A few months ago, Olivia had a virus.
“The virus caused pneumonia and Olivia was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Her lungs were not able to get rid of the CO2 in her body and it became dangerously high,” says her mom Susan Maniace.
The next step was to get Olivia transported to Strong Hospital from Highland Hospital to be put on an ECMO machine which acted like an artificial lung. Olivia then was flown from Strong Hospital to Cleveland Clinic.
Once at the Cleveland Clinic, the Maniace family was told that they didn’t know if Olivia’s lungs would ever recover. So, this started the process of a potential lung transplant.
Two weeks ago, the transplant team at Cleveland Clinic made the call that Olivia needed a lung transplant, but she was too sick to receive the lungs.
Eventually Olivia started to get better, and this is when the doctors and their team decided to take the risk. What made it even more complicated is Olivia has a tiny frame and they needed to find lungs that matched her blood type and size. She was then put on a transplant list, and within three days she received her new lungs.
With tears in her eyes, Olivia’s mom says, “This truly was a miracle.”
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