When Angela Kohelis spotted Jeff Polecritti during her respiratory therapist internship interview at UPMC Presbyterian, she began to cry.
“I don’t know if he recognized me, but I recognized him — and I just started crying,” Angela says. “They’re like, ‘What is wrong?’ I said, ‘That’s Jeff.’”
Several years earlier, Jeff was part of the respiratory therapy team that helped Angela learn to breathe again after her double-lung transplant. That experience inspired Angela to go back to school in her 30s and become a respiratory therapist herself.
Today, Angela is a registered respiratory therapist at UPMC Presbyterian, primarily in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit. She’s paying her own experience forward as a patient.
“The people who helped me, I wanted to be one of them,” Angela says. “I knew what it was like to be in the patient’s shoes, and I wanted to be one of the people who helped them.
“I help people learn to breathe again.”
‘Things Kind of Went Out of Control’
Angela lived a healthy, normal life growing up. She played sports and graduated from West Virginia University with a business degree. Afterward, she worked in sales, traveling all over the country.
In 2012, however, she developed an unusual cough — a loud, foghorn-sounding cough.
“We just kind of ignored it at first because we thought maybe it was allergies or something like that,” Angela says. “Because I didn’t have any health issues as a child. I had a random cold or had pneumonia as a child a couple of times, but nothing to write home about.
“But it just kind of spiraled from there. Things kind of went out of control.”
Over the next several years, Angela’s lung health steadily declined. She suffered a partial lung collapse while on her honeymoon.
In 2016, while working at a Greek food festival, she began feeling back issues. Later that night, she suffered a total lung collapse and was rushed to her local emergency department.
Her family visited hospitals all over the country to find out what was causing her lung problems but received no answers. Her quality of life declined, as she needed an oxygen tank to survive.
“I had a 100-pound liquid oxygen tank sitting in my home,” Angela says. “I had to refill oxygen all the time. I had the 100-pound liquid tank. I had an oxygen concentrator. I couldn’t go anywhere without oxygen at all.”
In February 2017, Angela finally received an answer. Genetic testing revealed she had an inherited gene mutation in her ABCA3 gene. That gene makes instructions to stimulate the production of surfactant in lung tissue to accommodate easier breathing.
Angela’s doctor told her she would need a double-lung transplant to survive.
“I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m not going to need a transplant. I’m fine. I’m used to being blue,'” Angela recalls. “Because I was pretty much blue from the lack of oxygen in my body. And he said, ‘No, you’re not going to be able to do this much longer.'”
‘This Is Unbelievable’
Because of the closeness between her West Virginia home to Pittsburgh, Angela contacted UPMC for a lung transplant evaluation. She traveled to UPMC in May 2017 for a week’s worth of tests.
The last test of the week, on Friday, showed that she had an enlarged heart. She couldn’t leave the hospital until she had a transplant.
“At that point, I said, ‘Well, all right, I’m going to be in the hospital until hopefully I get listed and get a set of lungs or until my body gives out,'” Angela says.
Angela learned on Saturday night that she had been placed on the transplant waitlist. Early Monday morning, a member of her care team came into her room and told her that there was a match. She would receive her lungs that day.
“I was shocked because I couldn’t believe it,” Angela says. “I thought I would be waiting for months. I had no idea that I could receive them that quickly. You know, when they came in and said that they were there and on their way, there was no time to think.
“Obviously, no matter what, if they were ready, if they were my match, I was like, ‘Yes, let’s do this.’ But I never dreamed in a million years that they would be there in 18 hours. So I was just like, ‘This is unbelievable.’”
Angela’s transplant, performed by Norihisa Shigemura, MD, took place on May 9, 2017.
‘They Taught Me How to Breathe’
Although Angela had new lungs, her road to recovery was just beginning. After waking up post-surgery, she was worried when her team told her she no longer needed oxygen.
“That was the scariest point of everything,” she says. “Because oxygen was my security blanket. I had had oxygen since 2012. And when they said, ‘You don’t need it anymore,’ I was like, ‘Yes, I do.’
“So, they actually had to trick me.”
Angela’s team let her fall asleep with her supplemental oxygen on, then turned it off while she napped. They took a picture of the monitor showing her oxygen saturation level at 100%.
That cleared a significant mental hurdle for Angela: “From then on, I knew I was OK,” she says.
However, she then had to learn how to breathe with her new lungs. That’s where her team of respiratory therapists came in. Every morning at 7 a.m., one of her respiratory therapists — often Jeff — would come in to help her.
“I can remember her big smile when I’d walk in the morning and she’d be there,” Jeff says. “She’s just a wonderful person.”
Angela’s respiratory therapists trained her to breathe with her new lungs.
“I had been breathing wrong my entire life because my lungs were bad,” she says. “So, every day when the respiratory therapist came in after my transplant, they truly taught me how to breathe again. They taught me how to breathe right.”
Respiratory therapists are a critical part of the care teams who help patients with breathing problems. Through a variety of techniques and treatments, they can help improve patients’ breathing.
“A lot of times, when these patients get their lung transplants, they feel, ‘I’ve made it,'” Jeff says. “(But) you need to work with these patients and get them to get up and move and do their breathing exercises and take their medications on time. There’s so much that goes into helping these patients recover and lead a full life again.”
Angela spent a month in the hospital from the start of her lung transplant evaluation until her discharge. While working with the respiratory therapists, she realized she wanted to become one herself.
“They were the kindest and most caring people that I had ever met,” she says. “Not to say that the nurses, and the doctors, and everybody else in the hospital weren’t. It’s just that there was something about (the respiratory therapists) that touched a place in my heart.
“That stuck with me. That made me want to do it.”
‘I Knew Where I Wanted to Be’
Angela’s pursuit of a respiratory therapy career took a backseat after her father became ill. She, her mother, and her sister all became caretakers for him.
She eventually went back to school in 2022 to take the steps to become a respiratory therapist.
She met with her UPMC pulmonologist, Joseph Pilewski, MD, to make sure it was OK from a health perspective.
Angela takes immunosuppressive medications, which reduce the chance of her lungs being rejected but also make her more vulnerable to infections. Dr. Pilewski told her she would need to take precautions as a respiratory therapist to ensure she didn’t jeopardize her new lungs.
“His biggest thing (was) to make sure that I take care of myself because he has taken care of me since the moment I got out of that operating room,” Angela says. “He has been right by my side, and I want to make sure that I don’t do anything silly to mess up myself and the progress that I have made.”
Promising Dr. Pilewski that she would be careful, she began her training. After completing two years of classes, which included an internship at UPMC Presbyterian, she joined UPMC full-time in summer 2024.
“I knew where I wanted to be from the beginning, and they were just tickled pink, knowing that I wanted to be there,” she says.
‘I Hope I’m Making My Donor Proud’
Angela’s quality of life improved significantly after her transplant. She helped coach her niece in volleyball, which she couldn’t do when she was sick. She can travel without oxygen, and she is getting remarried.
Most of all, she feels appreciative of the opportunity to work as a respiratory therapist and help patients.
“I wanted to be somebody who helps those that can’t speak for themselves,” she says. “I know what it’s like to have that breathing tube in. And when you can’t advocate for yourself, I can advocate for you because I know what it feels like.”
Following Dr. Pilewski’s guidance, Angela wears a mask when involved in direct patient care. That helps protect her from potential respiratory infections.
She feels grateful to work with the people who did so much for her — from Dr. Shigemura, to Dr. Pilewski, to Jeff and her fellow respiratory therapists.
“It’s a wonderful daily reminder that because of (Dr. Shigemura’s) hands and his skills, I am here,” she says. “And I get to see Jeff every day and work by him. He’s one of the reasons and one of the people that helped me learn to breathe again. He’s a wonderful reminder of why I’m here.”
Angela treats many patients who have stories similar to hers. She sometimes shares her story with them as an example of what’s possible.
“I think what she brings is just a different aspect of helping people understand that you can recover, you can lead a normal life,” Jeff says. “I think it’s a big inspiration for her to share her story and talk to patients about that.”
She’s grateful for the second chance at life that her transplant allowed, and she wants to make the most of it.
“I hope I’m making my donor proud — because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here,” she says. “That’s what my hope truly is.”