Posted on 10/03/2017 10:24:10 PM PDT by TBP
Making her debut at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater singing from the libretto of “La Traviata,” chanteuse Charity Tillemann-Dick reached to the vocal stratosphere and gave her all to the last high note.
The audience erupted into applause and the soprano bowed, moved offstage and collapsed into a wheelchair.
An oxygen cannula was secured around her nose while caregivers uncovered the IV line in her arm and administered steroids and antibiotics to keep her alive.
“I knew that death was imminent, but I was able to live this dream,” Tillemann-Dick told The Post, speaking of her powerful September 2011 performance. “A million and one miracles had paved the path.”
Now 34, the singer — who ended up receiving two double lung transplants — has written her inspiring memoir: “The Encore” (Atria Books, out Tuesday), about her battle with pulmonary hypertension.
She had her first double lung transplant in September 2009. Then, after suffering a chronic rejection, she had a second transplant in January 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Controlled, deep breathing is everything to the pro vocalist. Of course, we all need our basic lung functionality.
Good for her, that she has survived thus far.
My youngest sister died from it about two weeks after being diagnosed. Of course my sister was extremely overweight and refused to exercise. Whereas this young girl here, is slender and has the self discipline and the ambition of a professional performer.
I had never even heard of this disease until it struck a family member. I think my sister waited far too long to seek help, even when she knew her breathing and balance were becoming more difficult. When someone is a 58 y/o American adult, there is only so much you can do to persuade them to change their habits. People get set in their ways by that age.
Her grandfather was Tom Lantos, the 14-term Peninsula Democratic Party congressman who along with his wife, Annette, survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Hungary.
And she sang “La Traviata.” A perfect choice under the circumstances! ;^)
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