"still buying green bananas"

Mon., Jun 01

Barbara Lynch has never been one to sit still. Even at 75, an age by which most people slow down to enjoy retirement, she has continued to teach full-time as a professor in Southern's Marriage and Family Therapy Department. Lynch also has owned and operated a bead store, traveled frequently, and until recently hopped on a stationary bicycle for 45 minutes a day, every day. Her work at the university not only entails teaching, but includes consultation efforts in her department's family therapy clinic -- a clinic she created -- that serves court-referred families to receive counseling.

But last June, she was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis -- a progressive disease in which scar tissue forms in the lungs and eventually destroys the lungs' capacity to deliver an adequate amount of oxygen to the bloodstream. In addition, she has several related conditions, such as pulmonary hypertension. As a result, Lynch is hooked up to an oxygen tank nearly 24 hours a day, whether it's the large converter that turns air into pure oxygen or one of her portable tanks that provides her with 20 to 30 minutes of oxygen apiece. In addition, she takes immune suppressor drugs, steroids and even Viagra to improve blood flow.

Nevertheless, none of that has kept her from her job. She simply has had students move the oxygen converter from her office to the classroom and remains connected to it with a 50-foot cord that allows her to move around in the classroom. "I can still walk, talk and drive, so why not keep teaching?" she says. "Sure, it is more difficult now. But I've never been one to just sit at home all day."

Her courageous approach to life has even caught medical professionals off guard. "My doctors just roll their eyes when I tell them I am still teaching," says Lynch, who adds that the person who makes the oxygen converter was surprised when she asked him about purchasing a second such device to keep in her SCSU office. "He told me he's never gotten such a request before because people my age who use the converter usually just stay home."

Gregory Paveza, dean of the School of Health and Human Services, says Lynch exemplifies dedication to her students and the university. "In most instances, folks with Barbara's illness would have simply given up," he says. "Her fighting spirit is admirable and is a quality that we should all aspire to have."

And while Lynch - who has taught at Southern for about 35 years -- is retiring at the close of this semester, she has not ruled out serving as an adjunct faculty member.

Nevertheless, her zest for life belies the seriousness of her illness. No cure exists and her treatment, at best, may slow down the progression of the disease.

"When I was finally diagnosed with it, the doctor told me that he had good news and bad news," Lynch says. "The good news was that it wasn't my heart. But the bad news was that it's this. And he told me that while they can fix many bad hearts, they can't fix lungs in this condition. In fact, when I asked him why he became a doctor who specialized in lungs, he said it was because it is the 'last frontier' in medicine. There is so much they still need to learn about lungs."

She says a lung transplant could "buy a few years," but that she is not eligible because of her age. Nevertheless, she is open to drugs in the experimental phase.

"Lungs are very complex little machines, yet we all take them for granted, until something like this happens," Lynch says.

She would like to help educate the public about pulmonary fibrosis. "Even though there isn't a cure yet, early detection is still important because the disease can be treated earlier and extend a person's life.

"The only real symptom I had initially was a little shortness of breath," she explains. "At first, I thought it was just because of my advancing age."

But the worsening of symptoms eventually prompted her to seek medical attention about 16 months ago. She went for a variety of tests and was finally diagnosed with the illness in June 2008.

Pulmonary fibrosis can be caused by a variety of factors, but often is idiopathic (no known cause). Lynch believes her case might be hereditary, noting that her mother had similar symptoms before dying in 1983 of Legionnaires' disease, an ailment that affects the lungs. She adds that pulmonary fibrosis was not something that was readily diagnosed at that time. "It makes me wonder if that's what she had," she says.

As for the future, Lynch remains realistic about her prognosis, but also hopeful. "Let's just say that I'm still buying green bananas," she said.