After receiving a double lung transplant Sept. 19, Tarboro's Georgia Gay is breathing on her own for the first time in three years, her father said.

Gay, 29, remains at the University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill, George Johnson said. So far, she hasn't had any problems with her lungs, aside from a little pneumonia, which he said he was told is normal for transplant patients.

"I'm more relieved now than I was a month ago. I can go in there, see her breathing, she can take a deep breath, where before she was just taking half a breath," Johnson said.

Gay has had cystic fibrosis since birth, and Johnson said she has had to have oxygen the past three years to survive.

He called it "near a miracle" that lungs compatible with her blood type became available.

"If she hadn't had the operation, she would've died," Johnson said.

"I don't know if the Lord was just looking after her, but the timing was just perfect" for her to have the operation, he added.

Johnson said his is expected to be released from the hospital Tuesday.

He expects his daughter to stay in Chapel Hill for the next three to six months as she rehabilitates from the surgery.

She is still on a feeding tube, and her stomach muscles relaxed from the anesthesia during the surgery, Johnson said.

"(The doctors are) hoping with her getting back on her feet, that her muscles in her stomach will work," he said.

Since Gay has been in the hospital, her five-year-old son Jackson has been staying with Johnson and his wife Melanie.

Gay's mother is Ann Johnson of Tarboro.