Story thread · 3 reports / 3 sources

Woman's rare form of endometriosis made her lung collapse after doctor dismissed symptoms for years

nbcdfw.com · 7h · first reportShare

When Chakia Bradford, 32, first noticed she was short of breath in April of last year, she assumed it was bad allergies. The pollen count was up in her home of Humble, Texas, “so I really didn’t think too much of it,” Bradford, who works in law enforcement, tells TODAY.com. “And then maybe a week and a half later, I still have shortness of breath,” she says. If she was sitting still, it wasn’t a problem. But when she was walking around, especially walking up stairs, “it became very hard to breathe,” Bradford says. She went to her primary doctor, who took X-rays. Bradford didn’t get the results until the next day, but was told to go to the hospital immediately. At the hospital, doctors confirmed that she had fluid in the space around her lungs, which was making it hard for her to breathe. They ended up removing about 2 liters of bloody fluid from Bradford’s lungs, she says, which made her feel like she was drowning. But the cause remained a mystery. “At this point, nobody knows what’s g