Veteran's health transformed by groundbreaking surgery to repair narrowed windpipe

As a military veteran, Lisa Cyr has fought many battles, but one of the hardest has been with her health.

Now, at 48, she feels better than she ever believed was possible, thanks to a groundbreaking surgery.

"It's magic. They changed my life," Cyr said in a recent interview.

Cyr, who now runs a cat café, was born with a condition which caused her trachea or windpipe to narrow.

Breathing was like inhaling and exhaling through a small straw, and surgery after surgery left her with a scarred airway.

In 2016, doctors told her there was nothing more they could do except a tracheostomy, a permanent opening in her neck to allow air into her lungs.

That option scared Cyr, so she kept searching for a solution. In 2021, she was referred to Dr. Pascalin Roy at the Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Quebec, who decided to try something that had never been done before in Canada.

"She's a veteran and I think that's why she's the right fit to try this kind of intervention and I'm just glad it worked," Roy said.

Roy 3D printed a stent custom-made for Cyr's windpipe. But his team's first two attempts using standard silicone stents failed to provide a long-term fix.

"A conventional stent is a straight tube," he explained. "What makes this one different is a front section that adheres to the scar, which helps keep it in place."

There were barriers, Roy says. It took six months of research and preparation as well as special approval from Health Canada. Then, finally, the surgery was successfully performed in July.

"Now I am free to walk, free to take the stair, free to do everything all my life," Cyr said.