On May 17th, the ARDS Foundation attended the American Thoracic Society’s International Conference, presenting in the PAR poster session for the second time, but for the first time, had a table in the exhibition hall. Our Poster has once again been generously sponsored by Eli Lilly & Company which is working on an important drug to fight sepsis, and that drug is called Xigris, and Sepsis or septic shock is something that many ARDS patients battle before or during their hospitalization.
Picture of Eileen with ARDS poster
This year, Eileen was joined at the conference by ARDS Foundation Vice President Paula Blonski, and active volunteer coordinator of the ARDS Quilt, Dee Storey, who, has an amazing post ARDS story of her own. Besides attending to the booth and visiting the many others, we were able to attend some of the relevant ARDS related lectures, view posters with research presented for the first time, and speak to authors of those poster.
Picture of Paula with ARDS Poster
We met old friends, and made new ones, not only in the area of ARDS but also in the respiratory areas of asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis and all of those post ARDS conditions that unfortunately many ARDS patients sometimes seem to end up with post ARDS. Even within the pulmonary community, for those who are not medical professionals, sometimes, education about ARDS is still something that is necessary. We stressed to many that even when one survives ARDS, they might end up with an array of other lung issues that they never had prior to ARDS.
And just in case you were worried…it was not all work, as we were able to attend a few “working” parties, and visit some of Seattle’s sights. And that legendary Seattle cold and rain…well, the weather was almost always beautiful as it mostly cooperated with us as we only had one day of drizzle!
Eileen and Paula in Seattle
