FERRIDAY — Lake Concordia resident Vicki Davis Lauer’s lungs were healthy and strong before a home improvement project changed everything in August 2005.

Lauer wanted Mexican tiles — saltillo pavers — in her California rental home, and because she has a natural creative flair and comes from a lineage of contractors, she decided to do the work herself.

“I bought the clay tiles and rented a saw,” Lauer said. “I was told to wear a mask when cutting the tiles, and I did, but it wasn’t the right kind. Consequently I inhaled the dust.”

Lauer said about a week later, she suddenly felt fuzzy and disoriented.

“I woke up, and I couldn’t breathe,” Lauer said.

Home alone, she dialed the operator just before losing consciousness at the front door.

Lauer said she woke up in the intensive care unit at the hospital near her home in California where she lived and worked as a clothing designer. Doctors could not figure out what was wrong until Lauer was intubated, and the orange dust appeared which had turned her lung tissue to concrete.

When a pulmonologist told Lauer she had only three months to live, she decided otherwise.

Five year later, now with only 20-percent lung capacity, Lauer is ready for a lung transplant. Insurance will cover the transplant, but she needs a little help from her neighbors to ensure her body won’t reject the new organs. The cost of post-transplant medications can range from $2,000 to $5,000 a month for the rest of her life.

Bass tournament and poker run fundraisers backed by Vidalia’s mayor, fire chief and radio station were planned before the Mississippi River began to flood, but her family wants the community to know they can still donate to Lauer’s cause.

Within the next three weeks, Lauer and her family will travel to Houston’s Methodist Transplant Center and stay in wait for lungs to become available.

“When that bell rings, we have to be right there,” said Deana Warren, Lauer’s sister. Warren has temporarily moved in with Lauer and her husband, Michael Lauer, a doctor of internal medicine at Riverland Medical Center.

Vicki and Michael moved to the Miss-Lou in 2010 when Michael was offered a position at the hospital.

“Moving here felt like coming home,” Lauer said. “(The Miss-Lou) agrees with me. It’s a slower, family-oriented place. I’ve moved at a fast pace all my life, and this is just what I wanted.”

Lauer’s sister Deana Murray has worked with her on physical therapy to strengthen her body for the transplant, and doctors have performed numerous evaluations to ensure that her other organs have a long life ahead of them.

“I’m fit as a fiddle,” Lauer said. “But I do feel like I’ve been poked and prodded everywhere.”

Lauer said her illness has been extremely emotional for Michael, even though he is a physician.

“He cannot separate being my husband and being a physician,” Lauer said.

Lauer said mortality means something differently to her now than it did five years ago.

“Time is precious,” she said. “When they told me I had three months to live, I just felt like I wasn’t going anywhere — I wasn’t finished. But I needed to be taught lessons, especially about taking the simple things for granted. And I used to have a hard time asking for help. I wanted to do everything myself, and it was like I slammed into a brick wall. I’ve learned patience and tolerance as gracefully as possible.”

Lauer said the experience has restored her faith in humanity because people have been so kind, and local officials and businesses have offered their support.

“Michael calls me a secret celebrity around here,” Lauer said. “Everyone has heard of me, but no one has seen me.”

Lauer said her doctors, Barry Tillman and Patrick Duffy, have been wonderful in helping her prepare for the transplant.

Lauer’s eyes filled with tears when she thought about what she would say to the family of the lung donor.

“Thank you doesn’t cut it,” Lauer said. “I would like to know the things that person enjoyed, and when I’m finally up and about, I can do those things and have fun for the both of us.”

An account for Lauer has been Concordia Bank in Ferriday. To donate to the “Trust for Vickie,” call Amy Barlow at the Ferriday Branch at 318-757-4592 or visit the National Foundation for Transplants website at www.transplants.org. Click on “Patients We Help” and search for Vickie Lauer. Donations are tax deductible.

Paint cans to collect change will soon be placed at retail stores at Natchez and Vidalia, and change donation cartons are in stores around Ferriday.