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Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, seen here with her husband, Ted, the longtime anchor of ABC News show Nightline, has been trying to raise more awareness about the condition that she was diagnosed with in 2001, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD. (Photo: Courtesy of Grace Anne Dorney Koppel)<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Grace Anne Dorney Koppel <\/p>\n
You know the saying, \u201cWhere there\u2019s smoke, there\u2019s fire?\u201d Well, Grace Anne Dorney Koppel is fired up about getting people to realize that where there\u2019s COPD, there\u2019s not necessarily smoking. Even though many people may associate COPD\u2014which stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease\u2014with smoking, many people with COPD have never smoked a single cigarette in their lives. <\/p>\n
This is important news that Koppel\u2014who\u2019s been married to longtime ABC News\u2019 Nightline anchor and managing editor Ted Koppel since 1963\u2014wants to get out there. She also wants to raise more awareness of COPD in general. In a recent conversation, she told me, \u201cI was diagnosed in 2001 with very severe COPD, and was not expected to live more than three to five years.\u201d It\u2019s now a quarter century later, and she\u2019s clearly outlived those initial predictions. But it has nonetheless been a tough road. Koppel described COPD as \u201ca lifelong progressive disease, and, of course, one never knows how long one has. But the progressive nature of it means that the breathlessness, the anxiety, the feeling that one is out of control, progresses as the disease progresses.\u201d <\/p>\n
Koppel Didn\u2019t Get The Proper COPD Diagnosis Initially<\/p>\n
Getting to the COPD diagnosis in 2001 wasn\u2019t a straightforward road either. \u201cI went to my family doctor, complaining of shortness of breath, inability to walk half a block as I had to stop and catch my breath,” she recalled. \u201cMy family doctor gave me what he called a complete physical, including proctology, but never ordered a breathing test. He told me to lose 10 pounds, and I would feel like a new woman.\u201d In retrospect, that clearly was not the road to go. <\/p>\n
\u201cA month later, I literally collapsed,\u201d Koppel related. \u201cI was on vacation with my husband and my kids, and I was sitting up in bed at night. I couldn\u2019t sleep, the wheezing sounds from my airwaves kept me awake.\u201d This prompted Koppel to get majorly testy, so to speak. \u201cWhen we got home, we made an appointment and went to a major medical center, and the first test they gave me was spirometry,\u201d Koppel said. \u201cI was diagnosed with very severe COPD. So that\u2019s how I was diagnosed. I had lost 72 percent of my ability to breathe.\u201d <\/p>\n
When First Diagnosed With COPD, Koppel Was Told To Make End Of Life Preparations<\/p>\n
That had meant that Koppel\u2019s COPD has already progressed quite a lot. COPD is typically some combination of inflammation and swelling in your airways and damage to your alveoli. Now, alveoli may sound like some kind of pasta dish but are actually key-grape-like structures within the lungs where oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange occurs between the air in the lungs and the bloodstream. As such damage in the lungs progresses and accumulates over time it gets harder and harder to breathe. At some point, the damage gets so great that the lungs can no longer effectively provide oxygen to the rest of the body. <\/p>\n
The news that such things had been going on in her lungs left Koppel breathless in more ways than one. \u201cInitially, when your soul is slapped and you\u2019re told you had COPD in just three to five years to live, you can do one of two things,” she told me. \u201cYou can either throw yourself into rehabilitation, or you can say that\u2019s it. In fact, I was told to make end of life preparations.\u201d Koppel chose the other option, \u201cInstead, I tried to make life preparations. And I was fortunate that I had great doctors, that I had access to the medications that were available then and that I was able to go to pulmonary rehab, which was only a half hour away.\u201d <\/p>\n
COPD Was Denying Koppel Of Breath<\/p>\n
That choice is easier said than done. The ability to breathe is kind of important because all those cells in your body need oxygen to do many of their basic functions. \u201cIt is not a nice disease because breath is life,\u201d Koppel emphasized. \u201cIt is light. And when you are deprived of breath, you\u2019re deprived often of hope.\u201d The initial symptoms of COPD may be some shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, fatigue or mucus production. But again, Koppel\u2019s COPD was not in its initial stages. It was already much further along to the point that she was expressing breathlessness. <\/p>\n
\u201cBreathlessness is, according to surveys of most patients, the most significant disability that they feel,\u201d Koppel explained. \u201cAnd it increases to the point where perhaps you need supplemental oxygen. Maybe you only need it when you\u2019re moving, then you need it all the time.\u201d Being more limited in your movement and requiring supplemental oxygen bring further issues. \u201cThen you are isolated and sometimes despised,\u201d Koppel mentioned. \u201cSo it is a disease that is massive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Koppel Has Had Multi-Modal Treatment For COPD<\/p>\n
Koppel did emphasize that she had access to good medical care, something that many patients COPD don\u2019t have: \u201cFortunately, I was treated aggressively. I was put on bronchodilators and oral steroids, and the best thing I was given a prescription for pulmonary gray amp, that changed my life.\u201d She added, \u201cIt was a long haul to getting back to where I truly could participate in life, but I was able to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n
One thing to keep in mind is that there isn\u2019t one single treatment for COPD. \u201cThis disease is not one where there\u2019s the magic bullet or pill,\u201d in Koppel\u2019s words. \u201cThis is a disease where a patient has a part to play. We must do all the things that we want to avoid like exercise, nutrition, all of these things are important, and if you don\u2019t exercise and keep active, the disease engulfs you.\u201d <\/p>\n
Koppel mentioned several times how fortunate she has been to get the care she has gotten and how she\u2019s lived a good longer-than-initially-expected life. But again, as she said, COPD is progressive. \u201cMy day to day has changed over these years. Now, for the last 3 years, I\u2019ve been on supplemental oxygen when I stand and when I move. I was not prior to that, so this has been an adjustment process.\u201d She continued by saying, \u201cSo now I have to carefully plan. If I\u2019m going to the dentist, if I\u2019m going to meet friends, I have to be sure I have enough battery. I have to worry about power failures. I have to worry about bad batteries. I have a whole group of things that I carry with me.\u201d <\/p>\n
COPD treatment and care has to be quite personalized since, \u201cthere are not many models to follow because this disease is heterogeneous, it manifests itself in many different ways,\u201d in Koppel\u2019s words. \u201cYes, my breathlessness has gotten worse. However, I do hover around 50 percent of predicted lung function, sort of miraculous that after 25 years, when I started at 26 percent of a predicted lung function, But mine is not a typical story.\u201d <\/p>\n
Koppel Has Started 11 Clinics To Help Those With COPD<\/p>\n
Her experience motivated her and the Dorney-Koppel Foundation that she and her husband established in 1999 to start clinics to help give others the care that she got. \u201cThat started about 13 to 14 years ago,\u201d she recalled. \u201cOnce I realized the benefits of pulmonary rehab and actually taking your medicines, the way they have prescribed, I wondered why it wasn\u2019t available in the most areas with the highest prevalence of COPD in rural America. We began in West Virginia and now have 11.\u201d <\/p>\n
That work has breathed new life into her as well. \u201cIt has given me enormous satisfaction to see people begin to take control of their own lives,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has enriched my life and has given me purpose. To spread the message that COPD is not a death sentence. It\u2019s a life sentence right now.\u201d With such clinics, Koppel is helping create environments for proper care and treatment.<\/p>\n
Koppel Is Trying To Increase Awareness Of COPD<\/p>\n
Speaking of environments, Koppel also wants to make it clear that COPD is not simply a smoker\u2019s disease. \u201cIt\u2019s a disease that 25 to 40 percent of people who\u2019ve never smoked get,\u201d she emphasized. \u201cAnd globally, it\u2019s not a smoking disease. It\u2019s a disease of the environment, of pollution, of occupation, of secondhand smoke.\u201d She mentioned concern over \u201call the pollutants that are in the air, which potentially could be getting worse over time.\u201d Such pollutants can be both indoors and outdoors. Koppel mentioned her concerns about The Clean Air Act being weakened and how little is being done about the increasing number of wildfires, which I have covered in 2023<\/a>, 2025<\/a>, 2026<\/a> and, well you get the picture, in Forbes. <\/p>\n Speaking of global, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, the World Health Organization\u2019s Director-General, and Jos\u00e9 Luis Castro, the WHO Director-General Special Envoy for Chronic Respiratory Diseases, co-authored a piece<\/a> that dubbed chronic respiratory disease \u201cthe silent killer\u201d and listed COPD as the world\u2019s fourth leading cause of death. They wrote how \u201cover 3 million lives are silently cut short by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a noncommunicable disease too often overlooked despite affecting over 380 million people globally.\u201d<\/p>\n