Born to soar: South Ogden woman seeks to inspire, make the most of her ‘new life’ after double-lung transplant
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- An undated photo of Kara Fierro who, in April 2025, overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos.
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- An undated photo of Kara Fierro who, in April 2025, overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos.
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- An undated photo of Kara Fierro who, in April 2025, overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos.
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- An undated photo of Kara Fierro who, in April 2025, overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos.
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- Kara Fierro overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos on April 19, 2025.
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- An undated photo of Kara Fierro who, in April 2025, overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos.
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- An undated photo of Kara Fierro who, in April 2025, overcame cystic fibrosis and complications from a double lung transplant to participate in an aerial dance performance at Cirque Du Kairos.
OGDEN — Just a few short years ago, South Ogden resident Kara Fierro was on palliative care and bracing for the transition to hospice. Her lungs were barely functioning and every breath taken was a monumental task.
As a lifelong sufferer of cystic fibrosis, or CF, she had defied the odds, living for more than two decades beyond the 10 years doctors predicted she might have when she was a child. Along the way, she managed to live more life than many hope to over a much longer period of time. She became a nurse, married her partner in Jamaica, swam with sharks, backpacked through Europe (twice), experienced the Costa Rican rainforest, hiked Angels Landing with a broken foot and her oxygen tank in tow, appeared as a contestant on “The Price Is Right” and took up aerial dancing.
Even when she was hospitalized and in poor health, Fierro would hang her aerial lyra onto a Hoyer lift or have her practice pole brought into her room so she could continue to do what she loves.
At this point, though, the end appeared to be at hand.
Flash forward to Saturday, April 19, 2025, and Fierro was instead reaching another milestone in her unlikely journey, performing in her first aerial dance recital since undergoing a difficult, but ultimately life-saving double-lung transplant.
“It meant everything to me,” Fierro told the Standard-Examiner of the experience. “That was one of the big motivating factors for me to get a transplant and then to fight through the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in my life, just trying to fight to survive — all with the goal of getting back to being able to perform. So, that was kind of the culmination of all that hard work, all that effort, all the time.”
The performance, held at Cirque Du Kairos in Centerville, was set to “Fever” by Peggy Lee — the same song Fierro performed to in her first aerial recital several years earlier.
“During my first life, that was my first ever performance. And now, with my new life, I want to do that as my first ever performance,” she said prior to the recital.
Fierro’s “new life” began on Nov. 28, 2022, when she received her new lungs after having been rejected four times as a transplant candidate previously. However, the road back to performing, to reclaiming her life, was a veritable gauntlet, particularly during those early days.
After surgery, she spent five days in a coma, which was followed by six weeks in intensive care. At varying junctures, Fierro was intubated, she had a tracheostomy and, over the course of several hospital stays, she received more blood transfusions than she can count.
The toll on her body and spirit were tremendous, and she wasn’t always sure she wanted to keep up the fight.
“I had lost all of my muscle to the point where I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t hold my head up, I couldn’t lift my hand up,” she said. “I had to relearn how to walk, how to breathe, how to eat, how to talk. I had to relearn all of that. I had lots of complications during that first year.”
Within three months post-transplant, though, Fierro says she was able to start exercising again, a regimen that came to include weightlifting, bike training, yoga and dance practice.
“All that was just trying to work up that muscle to be able to come back,” Fierro said. “And I mean, even doing that, it took two and a half years. But (performing) was my goal, and I finally achieved it.”
Along the way, she has been supported by people like her husband, Isaac Eaves, and the grandparents who raised her, Ken and Belinda Fierro.
“Breathtaking. It was absolutely breathtaking,” Belinda Fierro told the Standard-Examiner, recalling the April performance. “It was a miracle to see what she’s gone through her whole life. And, now, to be free and be able to do it. … I could tell she was struggling. She’s very, very thin, and I could tell she didn’t feel 100%, but she gave it 110%. And to me, I’m like, ‘How does a person do that?’ You know, you’re not feeling good, yet you go out there and you knock it out of the park.”
Belinda Fierro says she tried not to hold her granddaughter back from doing things and pushed her to get the most out of her life, however long it might be, as she raised her. However, it was often Kara who pushed her own limits.
“She coughed a lot, and when she coughed, it would scare you because it was so vicious. I mean, the veins in her neck would pop out,” Belinda Fierro said. “She wanted to play softball, and I thought, ‘Okay, well, not too many people want somebody who’s coughing like that to play softball. Anyway, I became the coach, and we made our own little team, and she had a good summer. When she makes up her mind, she’s going to do it. Like she says, that word ‘can’t’ is not in her vocabulary.”
Over the years, Belinda has been with Kara through incredible highs and unthinkable lows across numerous hospitalizations and medical procedures. Still, she credits Eaves for helping her granddaughter weather the storm during those moments when her resolve wavered.
Eaves and Fierro were wed in 2009 but they met at Weber State University five years earlier, in a physiology class of all places.
“I made up my mind that I would ask her out,” Eaves told the Standard-Examiner. “So, what I did is I told her, ‘Hey, we’re all getting together for a study group. And I said, ‘We’re going to go here. It’s going to be great,’ but she was the only one I ever invited. It was just me and her, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know where everyone else is. Gosh. I guess they got the time wrong or they didn’t want to go to the library.'”
Said Fierro: “It was a good move on his part. It was low-key, low-stress, and he had me laughing the entire time. It was like, ‘Oh, I like this guy.'”
Eaves and Fierro’s marriage has been anything but ordinary. There have been scares and stumbles over the years; they’ve even attended anticipatory grief counseling when Fierro’s health has been bad. All the while, though, Eaves has been awed by the way in which his wife continues to live.
“I feel like she’s driving the car and I’m hanging on for dear life and loving every second of it because she is making sure that she lives life to the fullest,” Eaves said.
Looking to the future, they know that there’s no way of telling how many days they’ll ultimately have together. Between her CF, the transplant and the immunosuppressants she takes, Fierro has been told her risk of cancer has increased exponentially. Meanwhile, any infection she gets brings with it a chance of rejection from her new lungs. As such, the couple is focused on quality of life over quantity.
They plan to take on the Narrows at Zion National Park in the near future and Fierro has designs on seeing the Aurora Borealis from Icelandic skies. She also intends to continue with aerial dance and has begun to explore musical theatre.
“When I grew up, I couldn’t hold my breath for very long. I was always out of breath, and I was told my entire life that I couldn’t sing … I couldn’t hold a tune for very long,” Fierro said. “One of the things I’ve been doing since the transplant is singing, and I’ve actually auditioned for three shows.”
All the while, the fact that someone else died so she could live remains front of mind. Fierro doesn’t know much about her donor beyond the fact that she died young and also had an interest in dance, but she’s exchanged letters with the woman’s family, and she’s eternally grateful for the gift she has been given.
“I’m just trying my hardest to make sure she’s proud and I’m trying my hardest to finish up my bucket list and do things for her,” Fierro said. “I really want to inspire people.”