At one VA hospital, the care is 'beyond superb'

I had to miss my 50th reunion of the Collingswood High School Class of 1964 in May, as the lung transplant I received from the Madison, Wis., VA hospital has developed complications, and I cannot travel. In fact, I'm writing this from the hospital, after my fourth admission since March.

In 2006, I was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a little-known disease that kills as many people as breast cancer, but gets only a fraction of the research funding breast cancer receives. PF is not smoking related - my next cigarette will be my first.

After I pulled an oxygen tank to work for the last 3 1/2 years, it forced my retirement as executive director of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons on Oct. 1. Then, on Dec. 23, I had a right-lung transplant through the Department of Veterans Affairs. I believe that without the transplant I'd be dead now, because my pulmonary functioning was failing fast.

While diseases such as cystic fibrosis and emphysema require a double lung transplant, pulmonary fibrosis patients can do very well with a single lung because PF does not spread to the new lung.

Lung transplants are extremely complex, with thousands of variables, many beyond the medical team's control or understanding. Going in, the pulmonologist warned me that 20 percent of patients don't survive the first year - and that even if I did everything right, I could be in that group.

I did great the first six weeks and was climbing 10 flights of stairs a day. Unfortunately, my new lung has developed "issues," so I'm back on oxygen and breathing very hard with limited exertion. It now looks like, through the luck of the draw, there's at least a 50 percent chance I will fall into the 20 percent who don't survive a year.

But I and everyone at the VA are still in there pitching. I stress that this is no one's fault - these things happen.

Regardless, I know that at 68, I've lived longer than 99 percent of the people ever born. Because I was born in a modern society with a free-market economy, I've lived better than 99 percent as well. So I have no complaints if I'm not able to stretch to 99.2 percent. I read every day of people who are less fortunate than I am.

There is no chance for a second lung transplant. The prognosis would be poor at my age, and lungs are in short supply. Many people die while on the waiting list. This underlines the need for more folks to list as organ donors.

Getting a lung or lungs depends on your lung allocation score. The trick is to be sick enough to get to the top of the list, then to hang on and be well enough for the operation if the right lung comes along. If they don't get a match in blood type and size in time, your score won't matter.

I've been reading a lot of bashing of VA health care due to the situation in Arizona and elsewhere. I can only speak for myself, but the care I have received at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, both in Madison, as I went through the lung-transplant process has been beyond superb. There is not one medical professional there, from the surgeons and other doctors to the nurses and certified nursing assistants, whom I would not be glad to have care for me or a loved one in the future. If VA administrators falsified waiting times to get bonuses, they are guilty of typical Washington fraud - but let's not condemn the thousands of caring VA providers for the actions of a few.

Based on my experiences, let me make two suggestions about what you can do to help. First, become an organ donor. Second, your local VA needs volunteers.

They say that "freedom is not free." At the VA, you can help folks who paid most of your share.