What Her Mother’s Life-Altering Diagnosis Taught Laura Dern

4 min readLaura Dern is a paid spokesperson for Boehringer Ingelheim.Not all doctors are known for their winning bedside manner—a fact that isn’t lost on actress Laura Dern. After her mother, actress Diane Ladd, was hospitalized with pneumonia, an HRCT Scan showed unusual scarring on her lungs. They then waited for the doctor to explain what it meant.“The doctor came into the room and said, ‘Be gentle with your mother—she’ll be dead in six months. She has something called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and there’s nothing you can really do,’” Dern recounted at the Women’s Health Lab on May 18, 2026, in New York City. And with that, the doctor turned and left the room, providing no other information or context.Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common type of interstitial lung disease (ILD), a group of conditions that cause inflammation and scarring in the lungs. IPF affects about 200,000 people in the U.S., and “it’s a progressive disease, which means it worsens over time, and leads to more lung dysfunction,” Rany Condos, MD, a New York City-based pulmonologist, told the audience. As the disease progresses, breathing can become more difficult as the lungs struggle to fill with air and deliver oxygen to the bloodstream.IPF can be easily mistaken for other, more common conditions, including COPD or asthma, and it can take years to get the correct diagnosis, as was the case for Ladd.Dr. Condos added: “Sometimes it’s not until something tragic happens—like the patient ends up in the hospital with pneumonia—that somebody realizes that in fact they had a chronic lung disease that wasn’t being diagnosed.”Taking ActionDespite her genteel southern upbringing, Ladd wasn’t one to sit back and do nothing. “My mother demanded a second opinion,” Dern said. So they went to a different hospital, where they found “an extraordinary pulmonologist who was so joyful and hopeful and supportive of her,” she added. “It’s so important to advocate for yourself, seek second opinions, and to push back.”That initial doctor’s visit took place in 2018, and Ladd turned a six-month prognosis into seven years, passing away in November 2025, at age 89. “A purpose-driven life was my mother's entire focus,” Dern said. “If she were here, she would say, ‘Instead of dying, I did two movies, a TV series, wrote an autobiography, and then did a book with my daughter!’”The Caregiver’s ConnectionHearst Owned / Jeff AllenActress Laura Dern at the Women’s Health Lab in New York in May 2026.An only child, Dern quickly stepped into the role of caregiver after Ladd’s diagnosis, and the extra time they spent together strengthened their already close relationship. Much of this was done over walks, which served as both physical and emotional therapy. “We walked every day as part of her pulmonary rehab to maintain her lung function,” Dern said.The walks also sparked deeply personal conversations that eventually became the basis of their jointly authored 2023 book, Honey, Baby, Mine. “We had an incredible journey,” said Dern, who recorded the conversations on her phone so that she could share stories with her children (Ladd’s grandchildren). “These were the conversations we had never had before in our relationship, and they were incredibly healing.”Dern also educated herself about IPF and became an advocate for patients and caregivers to speak up for themselves and their loved ones diagnosed with the disease. “What I learned is that time is critical. It’s important to spot the warning signs early and never settle,” Dern told the Women’s Health Lab audience. “Ask the right questions and explore all possible options to address IPF head on.”Having a supportive health care team is also crucial, she added. Ladd’s pulmonologist not only encouraged her to get out and get moving, but also to keep working if it made her happy. That sometimes meant finding ways to overcome challenges. Dern recalled her mother being offered a movie to film in Savannah, Georgia, but had concerns about being unable to fly. “The doctor told her, ‘You don’t have to get on a plane. Get in a car. Get somebody to go with you. Go make a movie—you love to act.’”Leaving a LegacyIn addition to her work on screen and in print, Ladd also felt strongly about using her experience to raise awareness for IPF and advocate for other families navigating life with the condition. Together, she and Dern lent their voices to Boehringer Ingelheim’s Beyond the Scars, a campaign developed to educate patients and caregivers about ILD.“My mom was a deep believer that if you’re going through something, it’s important to use your time to teach others about the disease and how they can live with it,” Dern said. As the name implies, the website includes anecdotes from Dern and other patients affected by IPF to show how it’s possible to embrace life beyond the unseen physical and emotional scars of the disease.Dern said the goal is also to educate others about the often-overlooked symptoms of interstitial lung disease, as well as the potentially progressive nature of the condition. “Giving someone confidence is such a massive gift in caregiving,” Dern said. “If you don’t have answers, you can’t always do that. [Being able to raise awareness] has been a huge gift for me in terms of giving back.”MPR-US-104374 | 08/2026