Chuck Ardezzone started documenting his wife’s fight with cystic fibrosis in 2006.
His wife, Heather Champagne, 41, was diagnosed with the disease, which causes lung infections and limits the ability to breathe, as a child. She came to UF Health Shands Hospital in April 2015 from Naples, Florida, for a double-lung transplant. Now Ardezzone is hoping to publish a documentary about his wife this April.
Ardezzone, 48, said he stopped videotaping his wife because they both weren’t comfortable with the filming. But when he started filming again in June 2015, he said he realized he had to tell the world her story.
Ardezzone, a professional filmmaker, started filming on his cellphone but later brought his film team into the hospital.
“We have all that footage during the worst and darkest times,” he said.
When Champagne watched clips from the ordeal, she said she didn’t remember some of the moments or emotions captured.
“I saw clips when they wheeled me into surgery,” she said.
Champagne, who is now fully recovered, said before she went to Shands, she couldn’t leave the house because it took too much effort. The couple was considering selling their home because she couldn’t go upstairs.
“Fast-forward to today, her quality of life has improved ten-fold,” Ardezzone said. “It’s like she got a second life.”
The couple believes their documentary of Champagne’s surgery process will show cystic fibrosis patients there is hope, Ardezzone said.
“During this last couple days, we’ve been interviewing the team that got her back in shape,” Ardezzone said. “We wanted to show people that CF patients do have hope, now that someone successfully has gone through a lung transplant.”
Many cystic fibrosis patients don’t realize that a double lung transplant is possible, Champagne said.
“Before people watch this documentary, it will show them that it does get better, it will get better,” she said. “That’s what I want to stress: positivity.”
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Chuck Ardezzone (left) and his wife Heather Champagne (right) take a picture at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
