Marie-Jose Bosch-Kuiper (42) lives with one lung. Journalist Fleur Baxmeijer interviewed her about what that is like and how she found out that one lung (almost) did not function.
“When I was just one year old, I probably choked on a stone. As a result, I contracted a severe pneumonia, which unfortunately I did not escape without damage. There is so much scar tissue on my left lung that it cannot be properly perfused. The capacity of the lung is therefore only twenty percent. I never knew my lung was so bad. I only discovered that when I went to the doctor in my student days, because I kept coughing and always had a cold.
The GP didn't trust me and sent me to the pulmonologist at the UMC. They injected contact fluid there to see how the blood flow was. That's how they found out that my left lung barely works. For example, I can't walk and call at the same time, because then I get out of breath. Talking costs me more effort anyway, so I sometimes find myself a bit high in my breathing. I play tennis and hockey and I always have to catch my breath a little earlier. It actually seems like I'm in really bad shape. In principle, I can live with all of that, except when I get a cold. Then I have even less lung capacity than normal, so that I sometimes really have to gasp for breath. Corona was also an extra exciting period for me. If I got it, I'd die or have even less lung.”
Read also: 3 Calming and Cooling Breathing Exercises for Warm Weather
In the latest Santé you will find a huge file about breathing and our lungs.
Text:Fleur Baxmeier, Santé 9 / Image:Getty Images
