Charity Tillemann-Dick sings after her second double lung transplant! Know the achievements of this soprano and her lung condition!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In Death , Health , Wellness

Thirty-five-year-old Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick was a great inspiration for everyone!
She was a soprano who had been singing after receiving a double lung transplant twice.
She was a living example of how determination and will can help a person achieve and succeed in life!

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Charity Tillemann-Dick death

Dick died on April 23, 2019, at the age of 35. The reason for her death is because of long-term immunosuppression from the transplants.

Her parents used her Facebook handle to announce her death, writing,

“This morning, life’s curtain closed on one of its consummate heroines. Our beloved Charity passed peacefully with her husband, mother, and siblings at her side and sunshine on her face.”

The great high-pitched singing

Charity Tillemann-Dick had a great quality voice and sang great numbers. She did live concerts in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

She gave performances in some of the world-famous venues and has worked with eminent conductors and musicians such as Bruno Rigacci, Eva Marton, Bono, and the like.

She has also done operatic roles as Titania in ‘A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream’, as Gilda in ‘Rigoletto’ and as Violetta in ‘La Traviata’. She had also performed in the presence of Prime Ministers, Presidents, and such word signatures.

Her father was a successful businessman and inventor from Denver named Timber Dick. She, unfortunately, lost him in a car accident in 2008.

Her grandfather was the late US Congressman Tom Lantos. Dick’s grandmother also held a high political post and was the first female Lieutenant Governor of Colorado.

Her lung disease diagnosis and lung transplant

Everything was going smoothly until Charity received her pulmonary hypertension diagnosis in 2004. She received medical care.

Despite her ill health, Charity took up the responsibility of a spokesperson for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association of America. In her case, the lung problem had an unknown cause, labeled as ‘idiopathic’.

There was no cure for her ailment. The doctor told her to stop singing and go for a lung transplant. But Charity refused to cease her first love singing. The transplant surgery could damage her vocal cords and prevent her from singing lifelong.

Also, she would have to re-practice singing after the transplant. Considering the risks involved, Charity tried conservative methods to overcome her difficulties and avoid a lung transplant. This went on for five years but in 2009, her symptoms worsened and she was forced to go ahead with the surgery.

For 34 days, they kept her in a medically induced coma. Dick’s came out but her body rejected the newly transplanted lung. She was sure that this was the end of her life. She knew that second transplants were rare.

In 2012, she found a match in Tufani’s mother, Flora Brown. Tufani is a restaurant owner in Ohio who later became her best friend of Charity. The second transplant worked and she could breathe on her own within a week post-surgery.

Talking about it, Charity said:

“But when I woke up from the second transplant, it was different. I felt this intense, all-encompassing gratitude for this family and these people and this woman whose life I was carrying forward.”

In 2 months, she gave her first singing performance with the transplanted lungs at the Indianapolis Opera. Her doctors had told her that she would never sing opera again.

But she proved them all wrong. Her album ‘American Grace’ was released in 2014 and was no.1 on Billboard’s traditional classical charts.

Charity Tillemann-Dick defeated Medicine with her inner strength and great willpower. The charity was also a strong advocate for organ donation and research in transplantation in the USA.

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Pulmonary Hypertension

In this condition, the pressure in the arteries of the lungs rises. But frequently, the reason for this is unknown. The person gets shortness of breath, tiredness, syncope, chest pain, leg swellings, and a high heart rate. The symptoms appear gradually until the diagnosis is made.

Various medicines have been tried to decrease lung arterial pressure. But their role is limited. Lung transplant helps and is being increasingly tried to treat this condition.

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