Lung Transplant Miracles

This is Jason Cage.  He was one of my golf partners in the Lung Transplant Association Golf Tournament at Prestonwood in Cary yesterday.  I had not previously met Jason, nor heard his story, so I'd like to share it with you.

Jason's been battling Cystic Fibrosis for over 30 years.  In 2008, he had a lung removed and in 2011 he had the other lung transplanted at the Duke Medical Center Lung Transplant Clinic.  So here we were, on a beautiful afternoon, playing 18 holes of golf - which in and of itself seems like a victory for someone who's had to deal with CF and has one lung.

But Jason was up and walking within 9 hours of his lung transplant.  Jason is a Firefighter and Paramedic, regularly working 24 hour shifts saving lives.  His breathing is generally normal now, doctors visits have been reduced, and (obviously) he leads a very active life (one that makes a two lung guy like me look like quite the slouch).

They've been pioneering lung transplants for two decades at Duke, and there are patients still surviving and living healthy lives from those early procedures.  On the other hand, lung transplants have the highest rejection rate of all internal organ transplants - only 50 percent of transplant recipients make it past five years.

The fact that lung transplants can magically take someone from breathless and at death's door to battling blazes is simply remarkable to me.  The money the Lung Transplant Foundation raises will go towards finding ways to fix the rejection rate so that every recipient can gets the chance to make the most of life for a long, long time.

My new friend Jason is quite the example of making the most of life.  Please tell a friend today about the Lung Transplant Foundation.

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