Wildlife Rescuer Receives Double Lung Transplant After Decades of Bird Exposure

Laura Zitzelberger, a 63-year-old wildlife rehabilitator from Grand Rapids, Ohio, spent 36 years caring for birds and other native wildlife. After years of close exposure to bird allergens, she developed chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis that scarred her lungs and eventually required a double lung transplant.

Background and Diagnosis

Laura met her husband, Tom, while carving pumpkins at the Toledo Zoo in 1989 and later helped found Nature's Nursery, a wildlife rehabilitation center. For decades she worked hands-on with species ranging from hummingbirds to eagles and often brought orphaned animals into their home. In 2008 she developed a persistent cough; a lung biopsy in 2011 confirmed chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, an inflammatory lung disease that can be triggered by bird-related allergens.

Life-Changing Choices

Because the primary treatment is eliminating exposure to the offending allergen, Laura faced the painful decisions of giving up her longtime pet parrot Reuben and stepping back from hands-on duties at the rescue. She transitioned to remote roles—managing social media, training volunteers, and handling after-hours calls—to help keep the nonprofit running while protecting her health. Nature's Nursery rescues roughly 3,500–3,800 animals annually, and Laura worried that leaving abruptly would have put the organization at risk.

Rapid Decline and Transplant

Despite these sacrifices, Laura’s condition worsened. In late 2021 she was advised to seek evaluation for a lung transplant and was placed on the transplant list in May 2023. By November 2023 she required massive oxygen support—she reports being on "60 liters" of supplemental oxygen while connected to multiple concentrators and gas tanks just to move around. Hospitalized at the Cleveland Clinic before Thanksgiving, she was monitored closely as clinicians searched for appropriately sized donor lungs for her small stature.

“This is good news: You just have to get rid of your pet and quit your job,” her pulmonologist told her in 2011, an instruction that forced Laura to choose between her life and the life she’d built with animals. In December 2023 she finally received donor lungs and underwent a successful double lung transplant on December 12, 2023.

Recovery and New Role

After three weeks in the hospital, Laura was discharged to recover at home. She no longer works in person at the rescue and considers herself retired from hands-on animal care, but she remains actively involved—training volunteers, answering after-hours calls, and managing Nature’s Nursery’s social media. She emphasizes that she will not risk the donated organs by returning to regular exposure to birds: "It would be disrespectful to the person who donated the lungs, to their family. I'm not going to do anything that I know would compromise these lungs."

Medical Team

Dr. Marie Budev, medical director of the Lung and Heart/Lung Transplant Program at the Cleveland Clinic, supported Laura through the transplant evaluation and procedure and recalls being impressed by Laura’s spirit and determination.

Outcome: A successful double lung transplant gave Laura a second chance at life, allowing her to continue supporting the wildlife rescue she helped build—without the direct exposure that caused her illness.