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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • Just found out she debuted at Lincoln Center this week. What a girl.

  • Very inspiring

  • God Bless you, you are my inspiration. I have PAH and am just going to the transplant evaluation starting on June 14th. It means the world to me to see your videos.

  • God Bless you, you are my inspiration. I have PAH and am just going to the transplant evaluation starting on June 14th. It means the world to me to see your videos.

  • Awesome video. Nearly as good as Jill Bolte Taylor's Ted  talk.

  • Thank you God for creating few such people who serve as an inspiration to so many.

    God bless you lady.

  • So much nerves and emotions in the breathless voice of this woman

  • God bless the donor of the lungs !

  • She needs a hug. YOutube needs a hug button.

  • My god. I am a classically trained singer. As with her, my voice is my lively hood. She has an amazing amount of strength that I can barley dream of having. Brava. You are an inspiration my love!

  • That's amazing :)

  • truly inspiring, WOW, thank God for you

  • I sobbed nearly every moment. Thank your for sharing this with me. If ever there was a story of moving mountains and affirming that positivity, love and life will always prevail. xx

    Cee Fee Dunn

  • I sobbed nearly every moment. Thank your for sharing this with me. If ever there was a story of moving mountains and affirming that positivity, love and life will always prevail. xx

  • Brrrr she scared me from the start till the end.

  • I watched this already came back. I am just so awed by this story. As someone who has a close friend who has had a lung transplant, I know what this means. She talks about some of it, but it is one of the most invasive and brutal surgeries around and the survival rate is still frighteningly low and it is no solution. I hope she can stay with us til there is something else. AND I want her CD. Great voice. I want her to sing Traviatta here in New York. Sounds like she has the chops for it.

  • I think this talk proves my point about Science. Give us enough time, and we can do anything. Research, that is all we need.

  • Ahn...she scares me...seriously. Beautiful story, but scary. Very scary voice.

  • i love her determination so amazing

  • I cried so hard at this... what an amazing story from such a brave, talented young woman.

  • i wonder how she sounds in bed LOL

  • @150buckfifty150 eewwwww to you

  • my dog was sleeping on my lap while i was watching this and once she started singing, he looked up and just watched her...........it was wierd.

  • This new lung makes her voice really hard to listen to.

  • this made me cry

  • No idea what she just sang, but it pretty much sounded like the biggest fuck you such a strong woman could say to the douchelord doctor that said she couldn't sing with her condition.

  • I thought the title of this was Charity Tillemann- Dick after a lung transplant...

    awkward hyphen

  • I was feeling sorry for others in my life, but you make all, including myself, feel we all need to just count our blessings. We are alive. You touched my heart.

  • This chick rocks. Awesome voice. Awesome story. I totally dig this.

  • hahah that poor guy that the camera shot to when she mentioned viagra! viagra lets him poke his wife in more ways than one!

  • What a beautiful voice and what an incredible ride through what sound like a nightmarish set of experiences. It makes me want to be a better person.

  • WHOA! thats the most difficult talk i've ever watched, i kept expecting her to burst into tears at every single moment of it!

    but its amazing though, all she went through!

  • This is certainly not the point of her story and it is not reason to be resentful that this wonderful lady has been relaitvely fortunate. But the video does illustrate beautifully the absolute central importance of MONEY in every aspect of modern society from the best educational possibilities to even the question of life and death itself! MONEY is everything, like it or not.

  • i really enjoyed the arch of this talk, even though i really hate opera signing (i mean... really)

    it was still inspirational.

  • I just saw this on her twitter account: "On my #tedmed talk, dad was a university administrator so we were not rich, but we did have good insurance from #kaiser and a gr8 doctor. Gr8."

  • She graduated from Peabody...her family had money. It costs $40,000 a semester to attend Peabody.

    Had she come from a working class family, she wouldn't have Health Insurance, because of Pre Existing Condition...she would be dead.

    IF she wasn't rich, she would be dead.

  • @amberberglund dont you think it sucks to live in a country where the poor cant afford healthcare?

    personally, i think thats terrible.

  • @amberberglund I came from a big family and my dad didn't make loads of money so we qualified for a lot of student aid. I'm pretty sure that from a family of 10, they would too. And except for Arizona, Medicaid covers transplants.

  • @amberberglund Have you ever heard of the Fulbright scholarship? She got one. That would take care of a large amount of tuition if not all. Plus whatever other grants and scholarships she had would make it affordable to go to any school.

    Medicare covers 80% of the transplant cost and the other 20% would be covered by other insurance or a charity fund; Such as the national transplant fund. Please inform yourself before making opinions & accusations.

  • @TrueVideo - She also comes from a long line of Politicians and her father was an "inventor" ...I doubt she went to public school...and more than likely, she had private tutors for voice training. (Classical private tutors are very expensive.)

    Are you saying her family was poor? I don't know any poor Politicians.

    I read her Wikipedia page...that was enough to form an opinion, and "she's Rich" is hardly an "accusation" - more an observation.

  • @TrueVideo - so you know for a fact that Medicare paid for her operation? I would doubt it. She's a *working* Opera Singer!!! She probably makes $200,000, or more, a year.

    Very few "poor" people become Opera Singers. Poor people can't afford the training. Poor families can't afford the private lessons. 

  • @TrueVideo - and I wasn't attacking her or accusing her...It was more a commentary on the Health Care system in the United States...as well as the Class System (that DOES exist, in the United States.)

    Maybe if you stopped watching Fox News for a moment your head would clear and you could see what is actually happening in this country.

  • @amberberglund. But Fox is sooo appealing! ok I’ll stop. But... being spoon fed sound bites and having pre-made opinions is so easy to deal with, I'll miss it. Can I still listen to Rush and Glenn? Thanks for the heads up. Or better yet you should not attack me for trying to see a situation without a personal bias.

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  • So she did not wish to join her father prematurely? What ? How absurd can a belief in the afterlife be?

  • i thought she was going to burst into tears at any moment :|

    an amazing story however :) its not far fetched to say its a miracle things worked out the way they did

  • Well she certainly is entertaining -- entertaining, talented, beautiful, engaging -- if she hadn't been through so much crap, I would have to hate her! As is, I think she is a total revelation and I kinda want to be her best friend.

  • OMG ^.^

  • GOD her voice is annoying

  • God wants her to sing.

  • @meomeo668 That's why he gave her that conditions in the first place, right?

    Put credit where credit is due. That's with her family and the doctors who made it all possible.

  • that is amazing.

    but i would like ted to start to science talks again. thats why i originally subbed to this channel.

    for the physics, biology and technology

  • @Neylonx Soooooo... you subbed to TED not knowing what the ED stands for. Brilliant.

  • @jussts um, do YOU know what they stand for?

    technology, education, design.

    im confused as to where inspirational stories, no matter how amazing, fit into that.

  • @Neylonx Did you miss the huge TED Medicine sign on the wall? Maybe you need a hint about how this is related to medicine?

  • @Neylonx Actually the E in TED stands for entertainment.

  • @infpdarling whoops my bad. doesnt change my point though

  • This is a little secret I learned, doctors are smarter than some people think. "The best way to give someone the impetus to live their life as if nothing was wrong is to tell them they can't do it."

  • Hot

  • beautiful story for someone following his dreams on becoming a doctor. Truly aspirational.

    and I sing opera too. This is absolutely beautiful :]]]

  • How cute she is,

  • "But life isn't really just about avoiding death, is it? It's about living" =)

  • So strong and beautiful.

  • Here she is giving this heartwarming story and singing a beautiful aria and all I'm thinking is I want to see her shirtless.

  • 1 minute into the video and I think she has annoying personality and annoying voice. can't watch this no matter how good it is.

  • Love this. So beautiful and inspiring. Talk about an idea worth spreading - if everyone had her optimism, tenacity and gratitude (not to mention her talent!), think what a world this could be! I hope her story inspires more people to be organ donors...

  • Not even a standing ovation, what is wrong with that audience!

  • she is really annoying and it's taking forever for her to come to her point.

    fuck. that. shit.

  • i don't know how many times i've watched this already.

  • @MscBlggr I know! this is my fifth time!

  • Her message is awesome+ when she started singing it reminded me of star trek theme.

  • no! i don't think thats cool

    i want better stories. I wanna hear about people who got eaten by lions and survived, only to experience a car crash and also survive... and then but only then i will hear their stories. Mega sad stories only, no need this silly stuff.. comon!!!

  • One of the most beautiful presentations I have ever seen in my life. What a story. What a voice.  What encouragement for society.

  • This presentation has left me with mixed feelings. On one hand you have the miracle of modern medicine doing wonderful and amazing things for people. On the other you have a human being that seemed to be so overly obsessed over something at the time should have become trivial next to pure survival its kind of mind blowing.

  • seriously people, how many of you rate the video simply to compare the bars of the likes and dislikes ? youtube statistics suck....

  • @andygfox Yeah... "IDEAS worth spreading," not "feel-good story time with cutie-pie opera princess." Want inspiration? Go buy a poster. TED used to be about real ideas and not just cheerleading tryouts.

    My comment was probably a bit meaner than it needed to be, but I'm just trying to communicate that I'd rather hear a talk from the doctors that did her lung transplant than have to sit through this long-winded and sugary anecdote again.

  • @suumr then I guess, stick to main TED... not all these TED spin offs like TEDMED, TEDWomen etc... just watch TED.

  • She is singing "Je veux vivre" from Romeo and Juliet and as one who been seriously into opera for a long time, she's awesome.

  • May I please ask which language is she singing in?

  • @shahzad113

    Usually is in Italian!

  • @shahzad113 french...

  • What's with all the boring new videos, TED? This crap is totally irrelevant to most people. Yeah, nice story, cute girl had some disease, she went to college and Europe, her dad died, she got new lungs and could sing again, great. How do mushy, emotional pieces like this hold up to talks by Sam Harris and James Howard Kunstler? Let me know when you get Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Lawrence Krauss up in this shit and I'll resubscribe.

  • that singing was horrible

  • i know nothing of opera - is she extremely talented, kinda talented...?

  • I know Charity and her family. To my knowledge, they're not wealthy, but they make up for it in work, passion and have done so much for the PH community. They've had a really tough go of it over the past few years, but I hope this is the beginning of a new chapter for Charity and the rest of them. I am so glad to hear she is alive and singing. It is such a gift to us all.

  • Everyone should have the possibility for her treatments, you can blame that on American wall street culture without passion in their lives addicted to collecting money in their bank accounts, attempting a sense of worth over others in order to feel better about their pointless indifferent lives, they lack the passion in life for achievement to improve one's self or the world. If only everyone could be like her passionate, a positive addiction, world would be great. Greed is a negative addiction.

  • Wow...that was beautiful. Truly.

  • This chic rocks.

  • Inspiring and awesome! You see, the human spirit can persevere through love and passion...passion for life. I'm sharing this on Facebook.

  • ...When people think you're dying, they really. really. listen to you... instead of just...

  • I have been in the opera world for a long time and this woman is simply incredible. You can tell she's still working on breath, but her vocal quality is remarkable, with or without a transplant. Her voice will become a force to be reckoned with and I am telling you, remember this name. You're going to see it in some remarkable places one day.

  • interesting, but she could have said in 2 minutes what she said in 20

  • Sure most people don't have the money, but does that mean we should not be happy for her? Does it mean we should not appreciate her courage and her determination to sing again? I'm cynical, and I still found this inspiring.

  • She is an emotional human

  • Thank god she got a double lung transplant because she's sexually attractive.

  • incredible...

  • The emerging technology of organ printing should be funded far more than it is. Fortunately, there is incentive to develop it, and it likely will become a very big industry. All sorts of ailments, from cancers to what this woman had, could finally be dealt with in a reliable manner. Except for the brain, of course.

  • @Jotto999 I don't know about you... but I can think of a few people that would benefit from a brain transplant. :-P

  • @DrPhallus Hehe! Ah, I see. Yes, I see such people every day.

    Actually, on a more serious note of that, a different emerging technology called transcranial magnetic stimulation may aid people with that. Basically you send out timed pulses of magnetic fields aimed correctly at your head for certain effects, it's very interesting. I recommend looking it up. I love the amazing things being developed, but of course...not soon enough! :D

  • She has such an inspiring story! It is amazing what someone in her situation can do. This video is such a reminder that even if the odds are stacked against you you can do great things!

  • wow life is a true gift =) im so happy for her!

  • I was not employed for the last year and have PH, and I totally get this talk, love this talk, I will share this talk with everyone I know. Not only does she have an amazing voice, but she kept at it despite all of this. People are always trying to define me by my illness. Just because something is physically wrong with me doesn't mean I can't "live a meaningful life" and I have. Medicaid provides for my Flolan. It's a pain, I am also VERY grateful for it. Simply incredible. Yay TED.

  • I'm sorry I don't find this deserving of a TEDtalk. It's a nice story but that's it.

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  • This poor girl is shitting herself with performance anxiety.

  • i happy for her, but she is annoying as FUCK!!

    Keeping it real..

  • What a beautiful story of hope and determination. People might not know this, but medicaid covers typically covers flolan and transplants. It's nice to see when someone uses it to do something great.

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  • I don't mean to be rude but I like her better when she's singing, but I guess that was the message she was trying to get across.

  • Well, she can't sing particularly well, but still, holy shit. I wonder what it's like to wake up every day knowing that 99.9% of the people who faced those problems just died immediately.

  • Rich girl or not, it's simply amazing what our science and technology has done for quality of human life in a very short time or our brutal history on this world.

  • The story here isn't how she financed all her treatments; it's the magnitude of the obstacle such a young woman has overcome. That is the story here. Remember that.

  • @Mrmoc7 well said! :)

  • @Mrmoc7 yea u see, in canada, the thought of finanacing treatments wouldnt even come to mind, cause we like to help eachother by paying a little higher taxes so that people can actually survive and not worry about money

  • holy shit people!! i thought i was a hardened cynic but donkey cock in a toaster oven!! you guys need a nap and a cookie!! anything to reinvigorate your sense of human triumph...how sad and tired and devoid of joy are your lives that you have to take this story of someone genuinely living the fairy tale of whooping death's ass and turn it into a shit storm of negativity, condemnation and doubt? fuck all of you. even if this story is total bullshit, its still a far cry better than yours.

  • @clutterfish

    That sounded like the strangest back handed comment I've ever read.

    The whole thing about 'human triumph' doesn't really stir much empathy when we can't afford to 'save ourselves' in the very same situation. Which is what bothers so many about this story..

    We want to 'relate'.. We do! But we can't 'completely..

    'Will power' alone would of meant nothing, if she didn't have the money..

    It's an unspoken truth here.. And it diminishes the 'quality 'of the message.

  • zzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZ

  • Touching? Perhaps. TED? No. TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design. This has nothing to do with any of those, nor does it deal with any scientific discoveries or inquiries or any world/ political/ social/ economic events that could impact anything beyond her family or world. This is nothing more than a person's life story. I kept watching expecting to hear of a near medical transplant technique or something of the likes. You can do a lot in 18 minutes...

  • @profjaykay Stories are a form of entertainment, you dufus. take your close-minded views elsewhere.

  • all opera singers have borderline personality disorder.

  • dam!... nice ass!

  • i think i'm dead inside

  • With or without money people die from this condition. She is doing something amazing with herself and her life in spite of her medical condition and all the hate and prejudice she now faces here on YouTube. Who's to say she has money anyway? You don't need to be rich to get good insurance for your teenage daughter.

  • she got that miley cyrus sickness - i can see it

  • Regardless of the conditions this girl lived in it proves that with the proper resources anyone can survive and do what they used to. So maybe instead of whining about your "miserable conditions" go out and do something about it. Make someones conditions less miserable than your own or go pursue your dreams. More often than not patients are told to give up when they have cancer etc. This is the story of a woman who never did. Not because she could, or had the means, but because she wanted to.

  • @Jos7h

    "it proves that with the proper resources anyone can survive and do what they used to"

    Really? ONE case proves that ANYONE can survive and do what they used to?

    "More often than not patients are told to give up when they have cancer "

    Really? Can you put numbers on it? What's the percentage of patients who are told to "give up"? Or you are just pulling this "information" out your ***? Do we have any proof that her doctor didn't just tell her "the chances are low" or "we can't guarantee"

  • @kaminarigaston Why not? Why cant this case provide what HUNDREDS of other cases already prove. My mom was told to give up, There is an inspirational story on this very website where a woman with metathesized ovarian cancer was told she had x-amount of months to live, and she pressed on with a healthy diet without any "means" so to say and is still living. Obviously what this woman experienced was exceptional in many ways but that doesn't change the fact that if you let human pig headedness...

  • @Jos7h

    "was told she had x-amount of months to live" Or probably didn't understand fuck what she was told. Doctors can't tell you that kind of thing. This is the problem with trying to get "informed" consent from lay people. When doctors tell them "People with a condition like yours have a life expectancy of x" people listen "you have x time". That's not how it works, if your condition means a life expectancy of x, some people die much earlier, some much later, and EVERYBODY dies in the end.

  • @kaminarigaston press on, people often beat the odds, I would be pressed to say even more often then they fail. What this woman is saying is not that she was this amazing person, who was so lucky and is so blessed Christian bullshit. What I got out of it is to do what you love no matter the consequences, that it will turn out right in the end, and if maybe we tried a little harder to live we wouldn't be so stuck on wondering when you are going to die, and wondering when our next moment to live.

  • @kaminarigaston and of course we cant have any proof that her doctor told her that. But its her story and I am going to take it at face value. A lesson I think you would be good to learn among honest people. When my mom had cancer she was told she only had a little to live and to just give up, accept death. She and countless others from her support group were told that. So not just facts I am pulling out of my ass. Get off the comment boards you troll.

  • @Jos7h

    "she was told she only had a little to live and to just give up, accept death"

    Oh, really, and let me guess, did she become a mountain bear wrestler? Just what we needed, more useless anecdotes with nothing to back them up. I have anecdotes too, my mother had boob cancer and no one told her that shit. She's alright now. The guy who cuts my hairn prostate cancer, no one told him that, recovered. If they tell you something like that it's because your odds are bad. Hint: "ODDS" are involved

  • @kaminarigaston Well wow. you really opened up my eyes. you are a genius and a consultant for medical literature and should be praised. Brava sir. If you don't believe me there is nothing I can do to convince you. So you can stop trolling around, and deal with the fact that you obviously are much angrier than I gave you credit for. My mother did what she wanted, for the first time in her life, and although she rarely encounters bears, she rides horses again. And that should be enough.

  • yo go gurl!!!

  • A true survivor.. you go girl.

  • This is such an inspiration! You go girl!

  • Cool story, bro.

  • Beautiful beautiful beautiful!

  • She has my vote for the Miss TEDxWomen competition, definitely the cutest ever. And her voice! I mean, ok it's a bit annoying when she talks, but the singing! Have you heard how she sings? OMG!

  • "I had a match"

    wonder who it was?

    Quite a gift!

  • "We need to stop letting disease divorce us from our dreams"

    Most people in the rest of the world would just simply die in the first place. Its easy to give up your dreams when you live in miserable conditions. I really hate this elitists TED talks.

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  • HOO... MYYYY.. GOOOOOOOOOD!

  • What an inspiring story of hard work and determination. If I had been in her situation, I would have found it so easy to become depressed. What an inspiration! 

  • I find her voice grating. I had to stop watching. :c

  • Thank you.....

  • Beautiful! Screw the haters, this is straight-up inspiring.

  • What an inspiring story. This is truly a modern medical miracle.

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  • TED used to be better :(

  • TED used to be better :(

  • There are some awful and disgusting people commenting on this video.

  • well.... that was special XD

  • "We need to stop letting disease divorce us from our dreams"

    its not the disease that divorce us from our dreams, its the bill that comes with it.

    At least thats for the general population and not for the elite 5%

  • Thats what you get when you have money! Great story, just keep in mind while you suffered and survived, the common folk die all the time because they cannot afford one doctors appointment. Instead youre worried about not singing? What about advocating greater stem cell research or something to help others who suffer from your diseases?

    I get it, you suffered, its tragic and I feel your pain. We all suffer. If you were born in the projects somewhere, you'd be dead today.

  • @ImBackAJ20101

    From her bio:

    Tilleman-Dick has served as the national spokesperson for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, working to raise awareness, increase federal research funding, expand stem cell research, and promote preventative and alternative medicine.

  • @yonatanadoron Great. I didnt hear a word or more on it here. Just a girl, who suffered from a disease, and had a family able to pay all the bills, so all she has left is talking about her plight with singing. Serving as a spokeperson for the PHA is great. Im glad to see that. I would have liked to hear the outstanding costs of such a disease and how tragic THAT is, not the fact that she could have lost her voice.

  • @ImBackAJ20101

    From her bio:

    "Tilleman-Dick has served as the national spokesperson for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, working to raise awareness, increase federal research funding, expand stem cell research, and promote preventative and alternative medicine."

  • What the fuck. I don't want to know about this woman's life.

    I'm sure there are hundreds of millions of people who have had equally if not worse time than this.

    Why don't we invite some African aids patients in to talk at TED? Oh wait they don't have a "touching" story about the struggle to save they're voice boxes.

  • How exciting, a personal anecdote about overcoming tradgedy... it's almost like I'm watching Oprah!

  • The ideas about pursuing dreams in lieu of traumatic and devastating events is a good message.. I've had my fair share..

    However. 'This' specifically, simply wasn't achieveable without money. And I find that unspoken portion of it, makes this message a bit harder to swallow comfortably.

    I'm happy for her. But so many people suffer loss, at a fraction of what it cost to save just her voice. And I can't bring myself to not see it tarnishing the moral here.

    For the 'rich' as someone noted

  • By the end I regretted that they were able to save her.

  • fuck i couldn't watch the whole thing. After 2min i got so annoyed of this person, that i stopped the video. the message could be interesting I know, but there is no way I can keep on watching this...damn