It’s an early Thanksgiving for Robbyn Foxx, who at press time was scheduled to soon return to work full time as head of production at Santa Monica-based harvest. Just four months ago, this column (7/18, p. 4) issued a plea for lung donors to help save Foxx’s life. At that time, cystic fibrosis had decreased her pulmonary functions by 50 percent since January. Foxx, 34, had been in and out of the hospital several times, and her medical prognosis wasn’t good.
Since then, she’s experienced a dramatic turn for the better. Foxx has had a living lobar lung transplant, in which two donors much bigger in size than her each donated a lung lobe for the operation. These large lobes replaced her diseased lungs. The lobes are now acting as her lungs and will eventually fill her chest cavity. The outlook is now decidedly optimistic.
Six weeks after the transplant operation at USC University Hospital’s Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Los Angeles, Foxx walked into harvest, much to the happy surprise of company co-founder/executive producer Bonnie Goldfarb. "It was a joyous miracle to see her at the office, walking on her own power, looking great," related Goldfarb. "She had come back from the dead."
Indeed, Foxx had been gravely ill, her decline so sudden that she had to be put on life support. After extensive diagnostic and blood tests, two of her brothers proved to be a match for transplantation. Today, both of those brothers are recovering nicely and doing well.
Foxx recently began working part time at harvest. In fact, SHOOT caught up with her at the harvest office via phone. "I’ve been coming in a couple of days a week, ramping up to working full time," she related. "It’s just so good to be back. I’ve received such a warm welcome."
Foxx’s presence has been an inspiration, said Goldfarb, and the life-and-death situation Foxx confronted helps put in proper perspective the daily industry work that often preoccupies us. It also underscores the importance of never giving up, keeping positive thoughts and the deep abiding value of supportive family and friends.
We found out about Foxx’s miraculous recovery when she dropped us a thank-you note for getting the word out about her plight and the critical need for donors. Pictured on the front of the card was a sketch of a pair of healthy lungs.
Indeed it’s a special Thanksgiving and holiday season for Foxx, who said that the ordeal was in many ways more difficult on her family than it was on her. Having three siblings undergo operations on the same day can be a scary proposition, she said.
Foxx’s doctor at USC has performed this operation 147 times. Foxx was patient number 147, and she got to meet patients number 3 and 12, who had the operation some 10 years ago and are alive and well today.
During this trying stretch, Foxx related that Goldfarb and director Baker Smith, co-founder of harvest, have been more like parents to her than employers.
"Bonnie visited me at the hospital regularly," said Foxx. "She called me every day, and now she gets on me when I stay at the office too late. Harvest has been another family for me."
