02/24/2026
Hey Everyone!
U of M decided to feature me in their heart month stories! They had to shorten my story a lot because it is so extensive but still very cool! I will post the longer version for you guys too!
At 34 years old, Jenn Turner-Dold was diagnosed with a rare and incurable lung disease: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM).
That diagnosis led her to University of Michigan Health — and to a medical team that would ultimately save her life more than once.
From the very beginning, her pulmonologist, MeiLan Han, M.D. was honest with her: Jenn needed a double lung transplant.
On February 4, 2012, Jenn received her new lungs. But survival was only the beginning.
The anti-rejection medications that protected Jenn’s lungs were hard on her body.
“I gained 100 pounds in a little over a year and battled viruses and infections,” she said.
“Eventually, things stabilized. My wife at the time and I decided to start a family. She carried our daughter.”
Sometime later, however, her breathing suddenly worsened. Extensive pulmonary testing could not identify the cause. Jenn was hospitalized again, and once more, the outlook felt uncertain.
Just before a scheduled bronchoscopy, a newly arrived transplant physician, Dennis Lyu, M.D., asked a simple but pivotal question: “What if this is her heart?”
Jenn’s mitral valve was severely damaged.
One week before her daughter Avery was born, Jenn underwent a bovine mitral valve replacement and survived and was able to be there when her daughter entered the world.
After surgery, Jenn began cardiac rehab — strengthening her heart the way she had once rebuilt her lungs.
But her underlying disease continued affecting other organs which led to kidney failure. She began dialysis in June 2018.
In 2021, her heart began failing again. She was placed inactive on the kidney transplant list.
Her team decided to close an enlarged atrial septal defect — a small heart shunt she had been born with that had worsened under strain. That bold decision stabilized her and she survived again.
In December 2023, Jenn was once again in worsening heart failure.
Another surgeon at U-M Health presented her case to Dr. Shinichi Fukuhara, who is known for performing high-risk surgeries. In June 2023, he performed another open-heart surgery, clearing scar tissue and correctly placing a mechanical valve inside of her existing valve.
Within one week, she was walking on a treadmill in her ICU room. Jenn is currently listed for a kidney transplant.
