Haase- This is what I lost my father to... He was 53, healthy and lived a very healthy lifestyle, that does no good against this silent killer.
(CBSDFW.COM) – Have you ever heard of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis? Probably not. But every year it kills just as many people as breast cancer.
But there are no marches, no ribbons, not even much research for Pulmonary Fibrosis. There is no cure.... was fit. I never did smoke. I never did drugs. I had a great healthy life. I did every thing right.”
“One day, swimming, I ran a little short of breath,” he continued.
“So, I went to my doctor and said, ‘Hey, I’m having a problem here. I’m coughing,” he said.
The doctor thought it might be asthma or COPD, and gave Vick an inhaler. But it didn’t help.
In September, he went to lung specialist, who diagnosed Vick with a lung disease he’d never even heard of.
“Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. I said ‘what’s that?’ He said, ‘that’s a death sentence.’”
“The median survival may be three to five years,” explains Dr. Timothy Chappell.
Vick is walking less, but talking more about the disease. “I call it a Ninja disease. Because it’s kind of invisible and people don’t know about it. They don’t see it. But when it strikes you, it’s a killer.”
It’s strikes most over 50. But nobody even knows what causes it.
“This year, there will be probably 40,000 people that die from breast cancer – a terrible disease there will be over 40,000 people that die from pulmonary fibrosis.
Vick, who’s social media savvy, hopes awareness sparks research. Because he knows no one would want to walk in his shoes.
“I want to be an advocate. I want to raise awareness,” he said.
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