- Ted Koppel and his wife, Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, founded the Dorney-Koppel Foundation to raise awareness about COPD, a chronic lung disease.
- Grace Anne Dorney Koppel has lived with COPD for 20 years. She’s made it her life’s passion to help others living with the same condition.
- 虽然COPD通常与吸烟有关，但超过25％的COPD从未吸烟过。
- COPD的人们正在增加Covid-19严重并发症的风险。
Ted Koppel is best known for his accolades as a broadcast journalist, particularly the 25 years he anchored ABC’s “Nightline.”
However, a personal passion of his is just as notable.
Koppel and his wife of 58 years, Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, have made it their mission to spread awareness about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
COPD is a group of lung diseases, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, that block airflow and make it difficult to breathe.
In 2001, after struggling to lie down, sleep, and walk, Dorney Koppel was diagnosed with COPD.
“我不能穿过一个房间20英尺没有停止pping to catch my breath. It felt immediate, but COPD is not. It’s a disease that takes decades, and it progresses slowly in your lungs. Unless you’re diagnosed early, you almost collapse,” Dorney Koppel told Healthline.
虽然吸烟是她的copd的原因，但在她退出后，Dorney Koppel的诊断是十年。
“I did not realize the risks that I was taking when I began smoking, and when I stopped smoking 30 years ago, 10 years before I was diagnosed, it was too late,” she said.
While smoking is a cause of COPD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about
In these cases, exposure to dust, gas, chemicals, and more in the workplace may be the cause.
Dr. MeiLan Han, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, said that many people mistakenly think smoking is the only cause of COPD.
“Another misconception is that these patients are old and male. We know that the effects of tobacco smoke can actually be seen on the lungs in middle age, and roughly half [of] those with COPD in the U.S. are women,” Han told Healthline.
Lack of understanding about COPD may also contribute to the estimated12 to 15 million Americans是谁不知道,患有这种疾病的according to the U.S. COPD Coalition.
“We don’t implement any kind of routine screening for lung disease, which contributes to underdiagnosis,” Han said. “Further, some patients may be initially asymptomatic, and then even when disease progresses, patients may attribute the symptoms to something else and not raise the issue with their healthcare provider.”
当Dorney Koppel接受她的COPD诊断时，她只有27％的肺功能。
她的医生给了她3到5年的生活。
“他说，”好吧，我建议你做出生活最终的准备，“”她回忆道。
However, Dorney Koppel credits pulmonary rehabilitation, an exercise program combined with education about COPD, for outliving her prognosis.
“我采取了肺部康复并毕业，到了20年后的这一天，我练习了我所学到的，当然在那些中间的年龄，我已经研究过这种疾病，并已经学会了很多关于它的疾病，”Dorney Koppel说。
Grateful his wife had access to such treatment, Koppel said he wanted to pay it forward, especially given many people with COPD in the United States can’t afford to get treatment.
“Grace Anne talks about the impact of pulmonary rehab, and the impact is huge and has made an enormous difference in her life and in the lives of many people. But pulmonary rehab is only available to a tiny fraction of the people who have COPD, and that’s a national disgrace,” Koppel told Healthline.
To change this, the couple founded theDorney-Koppel基金会。Over the past 11 years, they have set up pulmonary rehabilitation clinics in West Virginia, Maryland, and New Orleans.
“Almost all but one of our clinics are in rural America, because that’s where the prevalence of COPD is highest, and it’s also where there are fewest facilities for people to learn how to take control of their lives,” said Dorney Koppel.
Through the foundation, they also hope to raise funds for COPD, given it’s thethird leading cause of death by diseasein the country, according to the American Lung Association.
“Think about that. It’s the third chronic disease in the country right after heart disease and cancer… Where does it rank in terms of congressional funding? I think it’s 165th. It’s just a disgrace,” said Koppel.
To raise awareness and in honor of National COPD Awareness Month, the foundation is hosting a free virtual concert featuring Lyle Lovett, Rodney Crowell, and Steve Earle.
可以通过访问至11月25日来看音乐会Lyle Lovett’s Facebook page,YouTube page, orLylelovett.com.。
COPD is diagnosed based on medical history and a breathing test called spirometry.
“When patients perform the breathing test, we see a characteristic pattern of inability to release air quickly. Small airway disease and holes in the lung tissue (emphysema) lead to air trapping,” said Han.
To self-assess whether your breathing should be looked at by a doctor, the Dorney-Koppel Foundation,along with the COPD Foundation, American Respiratory Care Foundation, and FCB Health NY, offer a COPD self-assessment atCOPD SO。
“COPD is a common and highly morbid disorder that is both underdiagnosed and underfunded… Persons with respiratory symptoms and healthcare providers need to be alerted about the importance of early diagnosis and prompt initiation of treatment,”Enid Neptune博士, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, told Healthline.
While there’s no current cure for COPD, medications and inhaled steroids in addition to pulmonary rehab can help reduce lung inflammation and improve quality of life.
However, Neptune is hopeful that more measures for diagnosis and effective treatments are on the rise.
“[The] development of research tools that allow us to identify molecular signatures of COPD that can be used for precision diagnosis and effective therapeutic targeting is a major step forward,” she said.
While the medical community continues to do their part, Dorney Koppel continues to do hers.
“I am a patient advocate. I speak for this disease because I know that with treatment — the proper treatment — that people really can restore their lives,” she said. “It’s time to kick shame out the door and treat the disease and the person.”
Her husband backs her efforts, and is happy to use his popularity as an acclaimed journalist to open doors.
然而，Koppel说他的妻子是一种引领方式的自然力量。
“[她]单手中，这显然是一个非常有偏见的意见，养有更多的关注患者的权利以及患者需要做的，以及患者可以做的，而不是该国的任何其他单身人士。她做得很好，“Koppel说。