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▲
Pulmonary rehabilitation
gave Grace Anne Dorney
Koppel a new lease
on life. Husband Ted
(yes, that Ted Koppel,
long-time anchor of
ABC’s “Nightline”)
helped her extend
that to others with a
birthday donation
that went toward
a new pulmonary
▲ From left, newsmanTed Koppel,
St. Mary’s Hospital President
Christine R. Wray, and Grace Anne
Dorney Koppel celebrate the
opening of The Grace Anne Dorney
Pulmonary & Cardiac Rehabilitation
Center at St. Mary’s Hospital in
Leonardtown, MD, in early January.
rehabilitation center
bearing her name.
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▲ Grace Anne Dorney Koppel along with
husband, Ted Koppel, cut the ribbon to
commemorate the grand opening of The
Grace Anne Dorney Pulmonary & Cardiac
Rehabilitation Center at St. Mary’s Hospital
in Leonardtown, MD, in early January.
Ted Koppel had the idea for the gift and
donated the funds to help open the
center in honor of his wife.
by Debbie Bunch
The new Medicare benefit for pulmonary rehabilitation went into effect in January; and that’s been good
news for patients all over the country who need this program to help them improve their lung health.
What many people don’t realize is that the Medicare
benefit only covers the services provided to beneficiaries.
It doesn’t cover any of the start-up costs typically associated with a new pulmonary rehabilitation program. In
many smaller communities, those start-up costs for
equipment and other resources are simply too high, and
that means chronic lung patients in those communities
either have to travel a long distance to access a pulmonary rehabilitation program
or just do without.
Leonardtown, MD, was one such
small community. Despite a high prevalence of COPD there, the closest pulmonary rehabilitation program was a
four-hour roundtrip drive. But thanks
in large part to a surprise birthday gift
newsman Ted Koppel gave to his wife
Grace Anne Dorney Koppel last year,
the local hospital now has a state-ofthe-art facility that rivals any you
will find in the big city. The Grace
Anne Dorney Pulmonary & Cardiac
Rehabilitation Center officially
opened at St. Mary’s Hospital on
Jan. 8, and what’s more, it’s just the
first center of many to come.
“My special thanks go to my husband, Ted, for making
this day a reality,” said Ms. Dorney Koppel in her speech
at the opening ceremonies. “Yes, he and I have a dream,
that every state will have at least one pulmonary rehabilitation clinic in underserved communities. St. Mary’s
Hospital is the first.”
The couple’s interest in COPD dates back to 2001
when Ms. Dorney Koppel was diagnosed with a severe
case of the condition. At the time, her lung function was
only 26% of normal, and physicians told her she might
have only a few more years to live.
Ms. Dorney Koppel refused to accept that prognosis. Instead, she armed herself with information about COPD,
learning that pulmonary rehabilitation was available to
help people with the disease. “The benefits from the pulmonary rehab program were immeasurable,” she says. “I
was able to begin a serious exercise program and was
closely monitored… by respiratory therapists while I built
up muscle strength that I had lost over many years where
I did not do aerobic exercise.” She says she could feel her
strength slowly returning, reinforcing the positive benefits of the lifestyle changes she was making. In the program she learned about proper nutrition and inhaled
medication technique, how to deal with depression and
anxiety that is common in those who have COPD, and the
process and progression of COPD. “Understanding your
enemy is crucial to control over disease,” she says.
She also appreciated the social aspect to the program,
which helps families and caregivers understand the challenges the COPD patient is facing, and she was inspired
by her fellow patients. “I was able to see others who were
not as handicapped as me, but had been before rehab,
and still others who were even more challenged than I
was but were trying their hardest.”
The program did wonders for her. Today her lung
function is nearly 60% of normal, which she says is more
than enough to allow her to do all the things she wants
to do. One of those things has been to serve as a key
spokesperson for the National Institutes of Health’s
“Learn More Breathe Better” COPD public education campaign. The Koppels have worked closely with the COPD
and pulmonary rehabilitation community to inform
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people about COPD and how it can be treated. Ted
Koppel has appeared at legislative functions to educate members of Congress, as well.
“I like to say that I got my life back through the pulmonary rehab program,” she says. “I actually did.” But
she emphasizes it’s a lifelong endeavor. “It is important to remember that although the program is 12
weeks, the benefits will not become reality unless the
patient is committed to a lifetime of change. Exercise
and nutrition changes must be continued by the
COPD patient, or else the rehabilitation is futile.”
A natural fit
Ms. Dorney Koppel says she and her husband
chose St. Mary’s to house the new center because of a
long family history in the Leonardtown area. “Ted and
I have had ties to St. Mary’s County going back to 1986
when we purchased an old historic home there,” she
says. “Our three daughters married at our house in St.
Mary’s.” Just as important, however, the county was in
dire need of a program. “The county met all criteria —
large numbers of patients who have COPD and have
no access to pulmonary rehabilitation.”
Making sure the program was state of the art was
job one. Health professionals at St. Mary’s benefited
greatly from the guidance of Johns Hopkins Hospital
in Baltimore, with Jonathan Orens, MD, associate director and clinical chief of pulmonology and critical
care medicine, and respiratory therapist staff members Cheri Grottenthaler, RRT, RPFT, and Marlene
Dougherty, RRT, providing much welcomed advice and
assistance.
In her speech at the opening, Ms. Dorney Koppel
also took the opportunity to thank many of the other
people who helped make the center a reality, including Joan Gelrud, Christine R. Wray, Michelle McCloskey, MHS, OT-L, SIPT, and Nancy Griffin, RRT-NPS,
AE-C, from St. Mary’s; Amy Pianalto, director of the
“Learn More Breathe Better” campaign; John W. Walsh
and his colleagues at the COPD Foundation; Jim
Phillips, director of the regional American Lung Association; and American Association for Respiratory
Care Executive Director Sam Giordano, MBA, RRT,
FAARC, and the AARC, which has worked with Ms.
Dorney Koppel in her efforts to spread the word about
COPD.
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Living proof
As someone living with COPD, Ms. Dorney Koppel believes pulmonary rehabilitation should be available to
every patient, and the new program at St. Mary’s that
bears her name will go a long way to making that a reality in Leonardtown and the surrounding communities.
Ms. Dorney Koppel also has some advice for the people who take care of these patients. “Health care professionals and COPD patients should have a relationship
that is based on being partners,” she emphasizes. “Unless one walks mentally in the shoes of the patient, one
cannot know how much stress is present in everyday life
for someone with COPD…. We need the empathy of
health care professionals, and never, never should you
blame the patient and assume that smoking, even
decades earlier, is the cause.” If a patient is still smoking, clinicians should certainly prescribe medications
and programs to help them quit, but they shouldn’t
weigh in on the person’s behavior. “Remember, you are a
medical professional and wear the white coat. You do
not have black judicial robes.”
She urges clinicians to look past the old smoking
blame game and conduct the blood studies necessary to
rule out alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
And one more thing, says the COPD spokesperson:
“Please delete the word ‘irreversible’ from the vocabulary that you use when talking about COPD. It is partially
reversible and treatable.” She is living proof. ■
▲
▲
John W. Walsh, president of the COPD
Foundation, Christine R. Wray, president and
CEO of St. Mary’s Hospital, and Amy Pianalto of
the National Institutes of Health’s National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
▲
Grace Anne Dorney Koppel spoke about her battle with
COPD at the grand opening of The Grace Anne Dorney
Pulmonary & Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at St. Mary’s
Hospital in Leonardtown, MD, in early January. Through
her own pulmonary rehabilitation she got her life back.
Ms. Dorney Koppel is a national patient advocate for the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s COPD “Learn
More Breathe Better” campaign of the National
Institutes of Health, a Maryland attorney,
and business manager to husband,
newsman Ted Koppel.
▲
From left, St. Mary’s Hospital Vice President
Joan Gelrud, Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, and
Ted Koppel discuss the vision for The Grace
Anne Dorney Pulmonary & Cardiac
Rehabilitation Center at St. Mary’s Hospital in
Leonardtown, MD, at the grand opening of
the center in early January. The Koppels, along
with their family members, hope to open
similar centers in rural areas each year until
they have opened a center in each state.
Visiting with Ted Koppel are Dr. Jonathan Orens, associate director
of pulmonary and critical care medicine and medical director of
the lung transplantation program at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is
also the medical director of respiratory care and the pulmonary
rehabilitation program at the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus.
Also shown from the Bayview campus are Cheri Grottenthaler,
director of respiratory services, and Marlene Dougherty,
coordinator of pulmonary rehabilitation.
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