Big news! I am now on the active waiting list for a single lung transplant! This would be at the Brigham in Boston. It means I can expect a phone call at any hour of the day or night: today, next week, next year, whenever a donated lung becomes available that’s a good match for me. The matching algorithm is quite complex, all designed to optimize outcomes for the maximum number of people. This is both exciting and scary. And the wait is likely to be nail-biting.
When the call comes, I will drop whatever I am doing and vanish from the grid for a while: a few weeks in the hospital, and then home if I am lucky or to rehab if less lucky. My support staff is gearing up: wife, daughters, son-in-law, dogs…and numerous friends have offered to pitch in with meals, etc. The total recovery time is measured in months.
I am keenly aware that my good fortune, when it comes, will be due to someone else’s misfortune. I will be getting the lung of someone who generously decided to become an organ donor upon their premature death. It’s a sobering thought. When the time comes, I hope the family of the donor will take comfort in knowing that as a side effect of their loss, someone else was given life. A hard comfort, perhaps.
Cue the Moody Blues: “Watching and Waiting.”