MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A legendary broadcaster whose wife was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2001 will highlight West Virginia and pulmonary rehabilitation facilities in a feature that will air during the upcoming episode of “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
Ted Koppel and his wife Grace Anne Dorney Koppel opened two rehabilitation centers in West Virginia earlier this month; one at Jackson General Hospital in Ripley and Roane General Hospital in Spencer. The facilities mark the 11th center the two have opened for such cause, and the seventh in West Virginia.
Koppel said on MetroNews “Talkline” the facilities allow people to learn about ways to treat COPD, such as nutrition and exercises.
“My wife was told in 2001 that she had three to five years left to live, that she would be on full-time oxygen in a year,” he said. “Through the pulmonary rehab, she’s been able to turn her life around and she is now one of the hardest working people I know.”
Dorney Koppel works for the Dorney-Koppel Family Charitable Foundation and is also a national patient advocate for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COPD is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. Yet according to Koppel, the resources for those affected are limited.
“You know where it lists in funding? One-hundred fifty-fifth,” he told program host Hoppy Kercheval. “It’s not fair.”
Koppel added compared to cardiac rehabilitation, the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for pulmonary rehabilitation is half that amount.
“It sure would be nice if the people who represent the folks in West Virginia started pushing a little for more funding,” he said.
Koppel’s package on “CBS News Sunday Morning” is scheduled to air at 9 a.m. on Nov. 26.