Katie Prager (left) and Dalton Prager met on Facebook in 2009
A Kentucky woman afflicted by cystic fibrosis died Thursday, five days after losing her husband to the same genetic lung disease.
Andrew Carpenter, the owner of Carpenter, Fritz Vice Funeral Home in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, confirmed 26-year-old Katie Prager’s death and said funeral arrangements are pending.
Katie’s husband, 25-year-old Dalton Prager, died Saturday at a St. Louis hospital of the disease, which clogs the lungs with mucus and forces patients to struggle to breathe.
The median survival age is about 40.
The couple was married in 2011. Dalton Prager moved back to suburban St. Louis after a 2014 lung transplant so his parents could care for him.
They were last together for their fifth anniversary in July, and until his death last weekend, Dalton had hoped to see his wife one last time before she passed away.
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Both Katie and Dalton (pictured together) were afflicted with cystic fibrosis
Katie’s mother Debra Donovan posted this message about her daughter on Facebook
Katie received a lung transplant last year, later developed lymphoma and went into hospice care in Flemingsburg, writing recently on a fundraising page for her medical and funeral expenses that ‘I get to spend the rest of my time surrounded by people and things that make me happy.’
The top of her wish list, a visit from her husband, never happened.
Last Saturday, Katie Prager’s family went ahead with an early Christmas celebration for her.
Dalton’s death was too hard for her to discuss, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
‘I’ll see him soon,’ she said.
Katie’s mother Debra Donovan wrote on Facebook: ‘Early this morning, she gained her wish of being at home, in her bed, surrounded by her mom, dad, brother and her dogs, dying peacefully, away from the hospital, tubes, IVs.
‘I know Dalton was waiting with open arms, as well as both her grandmother’s and a host of family and friends that have gone before her.
‘I know it is selfish to be sad, I had her so many days, but she is in the arms of Jesus today and she can breathe without oxygen, she no longer has to do dialysis and He has taken away all the pain she endured.’
Dalton was also a carrier of a dangerous bacteria, though this did not deter Katie from continuing to see him against doctors’ orders
Doctors had warned Katie, seen here with Dalton on their wedding day in 2011, not to come into contact with other CF patients since this would make her vulnerable to further illness
Katie was confined to hospice care in her Kentucky home when she said goodbye to her husband on FaceTime.
Debra Donovan, Katie’s mother, said that her daughter told him that she loved him.
‘We don’t know if he heard her,’ she said.
‘Dalton fought a long hard battle with cystic fibrosis,’ Katie wrote on Facebook. ‘He was a courageous fighter and ‘give up’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.’
In the two weeks before he died, Dalton had been in the intensive care unit on a ventilator.
Katie’s family wanted to have Dalton fly to Kentucky and recover there so that he could see Katie, but he was too sick to travel.
The couple saw each other last on July 16, their fifth wedding anniversary.
Their cases gained nationwide attention when in 2011, they married after a courtship on Facebook.
Katie (right) defied doctors’ orders, though she, too, would eventually contract the same bacteria that Dalton (left) was carrying
Katie was stricken with cystic fibrosis as well as an infection known as Burkholderia cepacia.
This dangerous bacteria is known to have adverse affects on the lungs and can cause death, even with treatment.
She had contracted the bacteria after meeting Dalton, another CF patient.
Doctors had warned Katie not to come into contact with other people afflicted with cystic fibrosis for fear that she would contract the bacteria.
But she defied the doctor’s recommendations and asked Dalton to visit her in Kentucky.
‘I told Dalton I’d rather be happy — like really, really happy — for five years of my life and die sooner than be mediocre happy and live for 20 years,’ Katie said earlier. ‘That was definitely something I had to think about, but when you have those feelings, you just know.’
In 2011, the couple married at the age of 20.
The doctors’ warning to Katie unfortunately came true, as she contracted the bacteria.
Nonetheless, the couple soldiered on.
Dalton underwent a lung transplant in November 2014 and was seemingly on his way to living a full life.
But then it was learned that he had lymphoma. After completing treatment for the cancer, he was hospitalized with pneumonia and a viral infection.
Katie would endure her own share of health challenges.
Both Katie and Dalton received lung transplants. While Dalton’s transplant was a success, Katie’s was not, forcing her in and out of hospital before she was admitted to hospice care
Because there was only a limited number of hospitals in the country who knew how to cope with her condition, she was only able to find proper care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
There was just one major problem – the university was considered out of network, and neither Medicare nor Medicaid would pay for a life-saving lung transplant.
As her health continued to decline, Dalton, who had already received new lungs, pleaded for help.
‘They are turning my wife into a number, a statistic, a dollar sign. I cannot lose her. This can’t be the end of our love story.
‘We are both ready to continue fighting but at this point we are running out of options and need your help. Please help me save my wife Katie.’
While Dalton’s lung transplant was a success, he would eventually contract lymphoma. After his successful treatment, however, he fell ill with pneumonia
Eventually, the UPMC received a limited permit to take her case, and a transplant was performed in July of last year.
Unfortunately, the transplant failed, and doctors told her that they had no other ways to help her.
Katie had declined all medical treatments except for dialysis, which she needs due to kidney failure.
With her health failing, Katie resolved to live out her remaining days in hospice care in Kentucky. She told doctors she will only agree to dialysis treatments so as to ‘pass natural’
‘Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong,’ Katie told the Lexington Herald-Leader earlier this month. ‘I just want to pass natural.’
Katie had started a crowdfunding campaign at YouCaring to help pay for her ‘celebration of life’ after her death.
‘I just want everybody to have fun and not worry,’ she said. ‘I just want to have enough money that my parents don’t have to worry after I’m gone.’