News : Meaghan\'s story: PH victim\'s father visits Vinton fund-raiser

Meaghan Hicks, shown with father Carl, died at age 27 after battling PH more than half her life.

As a military officer who led combat troops in many places around the globe, Carl Hicks considered himself a tough guy who could protect his soldiers and his family from anything.

And then PH -- pulmonary hypertension -- entered his life.

"When my daughter Meaghan was born, I held her and promised to protect her from everything," Hicks said Saturday in an interview with Vinton Today during the Pray PHor a Cure fund-raiser in Vinton.

But with tears in his eyes, Hicks said he couldn't protect her from PH.

Meaghan died four years ago, at age 27, after battling PH more than half of her life. She was a healthy, active girl, involved in gymnastics, when at age 13 she began to experience shortness of breath.

"They diagnosed it as juvenile asthma at first," said Hicks, who had been in Chicago to help start a PHA (Pulmonary Hypertension Association) chapter, and eagerly offered to come to Vinton for the event organized by PH patient Trudy Seidel.

A mis-diagnosis is common for PH patients, said Hicks.

But a second doctor at a military hospital in England looked at Meaghan's condition and immediately ordered her sent back to the U.S.

Meaghan soon received a PH diagnosis; doctors expected her to die within a year.

That was the beginning of a new life for the Hicks family. Even a common cold became a life-threatening event. And while Meaghan had many good years -- her battle against PH the disease went better for her than many other PH patients, says her father -- her health eventually deteriorated to the place where she needed a heart-lung transplant.

She died Jan. 30, 2009, a little less than two years after the transplant.

Key to PH cure: Money for research

Meaghan's father is now part of the staff of the PHA and soon will be its director.

"The only thing between us and a cure for PH is money -- money for drugs and research," said Hicks.

The PHA's main goal is to raise awareness of the disease while raising money for research.

"The doctors tell me we are getting close to a cure -- we just need lots of money for research and development of that cure," he said.

PH, Hicks explains, happens when the artery from the heart to the lungs becomes inflamed, causing a restricted blood flow to the lungs. The disease causes the patient to feel like he or she is suffocating; it also causes the heart to grow dangerously huge because it is working so hard to pump the blood to the lungs.

PH, said Hicks, is a terminal disease that can quickly worsen. He recently also lost his best friend to PH.

"Even knowing what PH is, when you hear actual stories it's eye opening," said Shawna Kurth, the sister of Trudy Seidel. "People kind of understand but knowing the day-to-day details and struggles is hard to hear. My heart broke hearing about Carl's daughter. It was such a honor he came and shared her story."

See more about Meaghan's story, including her farewell message, HERE.