MINNEAPOLIS — From the beginning of the pandemic, Lisa Stackhouse wondered about one thing.
"[With] the lack of ventilators, what if I were to get sick? Would there be a ventilator? Would there be a hospital bed for me?" Stackhouse said.
As a double-lung transplant recipient, Stackhouse knew just how lethal COVID could be to her lungs. She was set on not losing the gift of life.
"We haven't been living much of a life -- we've been pretty much just protecting ourselves. It's so important to protect our donor's organ, you know?" Stackhouse said. "I'm responsible for this new organ in my body from my donor. I want to do all that I can to protect it."
And when she says "we," she's referring to many Americans who have received organ donations.
Ones who are on anti-rejection medication that suppresses their immune systems, which prevents her body from creating COVID antibodies -- even with three doses of the COVID vaccine.
"When the shot came out, the vaccine, you kind of thought there was light at the end of the tunnel, but it wasn't the light we needed," Stackhouse said. "Finding out we're not making antibodies to protect ourselves against COVID kind of felt like the ship sailed, and we're still left on the pier or the dock as everybody goes on to live their life."
So when her doctor told her about AstraZeneca's EVUSHELD, she says she felt like another ship has come to rescue her.
Dr. Bryan Jarabek is not Lisa's doctor, but he is the chief medical and informatics officer at the hospital Lisa is in: M Health Fairview.
Jarabek explained what a "pre-exposure prophylaxis" is.
"The way I describe it to people, is it's a synthetic antibody for people who don't have an immune system," he said. "They can't take a vaccine and make their own antibody to be able to fight off COVID when it comes. This is coming and giving you a synthetic antibody to get your body to be ready to fight COVID when it comes."
And while EVUSHELD Is only available to a tiny slice of the population so far, Jarabek said he's been happy to watch it bring some sense of relief for the severely immunocompromised.
So far, "severely immunocompromised" is defined and limited to patients with lung and bone marrow transplants and others with cancers like leukemia or multiple myeloma.
"These patients on EVUSHELD, they're usually going through some pretty major stuff -- transplants, or chemotherapy," Jarabek said. "Just seeing them be able to change their life a little bit -- they're still going to wear their mask, and get their vaccines and isolate and try not to get COVID, but this is their security blanket."
Stackhouse says she is a part of a Johns Hopkins University study that focuses on EVUSHELD and its effects. This involves a blood draw and a check of her antibody levels almost every month.
When asked why she was so eager to participate in the study, despite the fact that she has to be poked and jabbed multiple times, she said she's just showing gratitude for the industry that has let her live.
"Science has kept me alive, since I was born, dealing with cystic fibrosis. Just knowing that the scientists and researchers were focusing on the 3% of the population that wasn't having a normal life," she said.
She said when EVUSHELD was first introduced, she initially had some questions but those soon went away.
"I wasn't too nervous about it," she said. "I was ready to get it. I'm ready to start living."
EVUSHELD is not a replacement for the COVID 19 vaccine, and is only currently being offered to a very small number of select patients at hospital systems around the state.
Do not call your doctor to ask about whether you qualify for EVUSHELD.
Doctors will reach out with that information if you are eligible.
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