Healthy Living

Back to Fighting Crime After 2nd Double Lung Transplant

Back to Fighting Crime After 2nd Double Lung Transplant

Back to Fighting Crime After 2nd Double Lung Transplant

On April 9th of 2018, the Thibodaux Police Department welcomed back one of their officers: 35-year-old Paul Thibodeaux. He has been a police officer for over 15 years, but for the last year, he had to take a break to recover from a second double lung transplant.

Thibodeaux was born with cystic fibrosis. He received his first procedure, an ileostomy, when he was just two days old, when the disease caused a blockage in his intestine. The doctors told his family that he would not live past the age of 12. “My parents decided they would let me do whatever a normal kid would do. So, my doctors think letting me run around and play spots and all actually kept me healthier as a kid” said Thibodeaux.

Throughout the years, he stayed pretty healthy, but then things took a turn for the worse. “I went down to about 108 pounds and I was about 15-12 percent lung function. I was on oxygen 24 hours a day. I was walking and I had to bring my oxygen mask everywhere I went” he said. Thibodeaux became in desperate need of a new pair of lungs or he would die. He was placed on a waitlist for nearly 5 months until he received the gift of life from a fallen marine – Chad Chisholm.

Chisholm graduated from high school in May of 2011 with a 4.0 GPA. Since he was a young boy, he knew that he wanted to be a marine and he left for boot camp on Father’s Day 2011. In February of 2012, he damaged his Achilles tendon before he ever got a chance to be deployed. Chisholm could walk, although with great difficulty. He was given a medical discharge in November of 2014 and on May 27th of 2015, the young man passed away at the age of 22.

Read more to learn about Thibodeaux's journey.

Photo by Povhouma.com