Talk show host returns in full voice

Successful double lung transplant restores zest for life

HOLLY HILL -- One year after receiving a double lung transplant, Valinda Johnson's clear, strong voice is making a comeback at a local gospel radio station.

For someone who used to carry an oxygen tank to the WAPN 91.5 FM station in Holly Hill, her 7 a.m. one-hour talk show that debuts Saturday is much more than a return to the airwaves -- it's more like a miracle.

The 59-year-old Daytona Beach resident thought it would never happen when pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that involves scarring of the lungs progressively chipped away at her ability to lead a normal lifestyle.

"When I was first told I had to have a transplant I had a lot of fear because I thought I wouldn't come back," Johnson said. "But the Lord told me to go straight through it without fear."

Johnson's troubles started in 1997 when she developed a cough that wouldn't go away.

A cosmetic manager for Sears Roebuck and Company in Sanford at the time, Johnson said the dry hacking cough was affecting her work.

"It was so unbearable; water wouldn't stop it, nothing stopped it," Johnson said. "I went to so many different doctors. They told me I had allergies, they told me I had asthma, they told me I had bronchitis."

She went through a round of allergy medications, bronchial inhalers and other treatments. She spent more time in the hospital than she cares to count and still her energy level and breathing capacity continued to decline.

In 2004 she began her radio show at WAPN, called "My Jesus is the Answer."

During the show, Johnson answers questions e-mailed to her by finding the appropriate scriptures in the Bible and reading them on air.

"I wanted to do something with my life instead of sitting there feeling sorry for myself," she said.

Earlyne Lund of Ormond Beach, president and founder of Public Radio Inc., which operates WAPN, said Johnson was an inspiration for radio station personnel, as well as for those who only knew her by the sound of her voice.

"She'd come in with her oxygen tank and pray for people, never complained about herself at all," Lund said. "When I saw her devotion and her desire to help other people, it really touched me."

Although Johnson was physically weak from battling health problems, she vowed to keep her appointments in front of the microphone.

"All I know is, if I had to give out on my last breath I wanted to be doing something for the Lord," said Johnson, the mother of five daughters ages 25, 26, 32, 36 and 40.

But in 2005, she went into respiratory failure at home and was rushed to the hospital once again.

This time she was given a diagnosis and the news wasn't good. Her lungs were diseased beyond repair and there was only one way to save her life.

"The doctors told me I had one to two years to live without a transplant," Johnson said.

Following a battery of tests to qualify for the surgery, Johnson received a phone call on Aug. 3, 2006, that two lungs were available from a 16-year-old male who had died in a car accident.

The eight-hour transplant surgery took place at St. Luke's Hospital at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

The operation was immediately successful: Her lung function went from 20 percent before surgery to 98 percent after the surgery.

Johnson spent 11 days in recovery at St. Luke's, followed by three months of living near the hospital so doctors could check her progress.

Now home, Johnson is eager to share both the heartaches and joys of her story on air.

"I feel awesome," Johnson said. "I do everything everybody else does. I feel like I've never ever been sick. I left here carrying that oxygen tank and I came back without it."

Lund said she welcomes Johnson's return to the radio station with open arms.

"It really is a miracle to have her back," Lund said.

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