Maryland man marks one year with new lungs

An Anne Arundel County man celebrated a big milestone. It has been one year since his double lung transplant operation.

Before this procedure, John Kelly was told he didn't have long to live because of his scleroderma condition.

But since his transplant, he said he's been given a new lease on life.

Getting his new lungs

Surrounded by family and friends on Saturday, Kelly cut into a cake in the shape of lungs. The cake symbolized the lungs, which have now been in his body for a year.

For around 20 years, Kelly has been living with scleroderma, an autoimmune condition where his body attacks itself. It's particularly known to manifest through hardened skin, but sometime it will attack organs, like lungs.

That was the case for Kelly and because of that, for years before his transplant, he needed help to breathe.

"Over time, the scleroderma got worse, like climbing up a flight of stairs to go to my bedroom just became an incredible task," Kelly said.

It got to the point Kelly needed to put on oxygen 24/7. His doctors in Baltimore then recommended he get a lung transplant.

"I was told if you don't get a lung transplant, you have about two to three years left to live," Kelly said. "I was expecting to hear it, but to hear those words is really gut-wrenching."

But his doctors couldn't take on the surgery, so he was referred to Temple Health. That's where he met Dr. Kartik Shenoy and Dr. Roh Yanagida, the doctors who would get him his transplant.

Shenoy, a pulmonologist at the Temple Lung Center, had seen many cases like Kelly's.

"Given the fact that his lung disease was progressing and his pulmonary hypertension was progressing, that's what made him a good candidate for transplant," Shenoy said.

After several months with Temple Health, Kelly eventually was put on the national lung transplant list. He only stayed on it for about a month before a donor came through with his new lungs.

Yanagida said double lung transplants don't have as big a risk as others.

"One year survival after double lung transplant is around 90% across the nation," Yanagida said.

New lease on life

Kelly's rehabilitation began shortly after his surgery.

As it went along, it didn't take too long for him to be able to disconnect from his oxygen. He was able to do more and more, however, being able to go up his house's flight of stairs really showed him the good his transplant did.

"I didn't get out of breath, I wasn't coughing, I wasn't gagging," Kelly said.

Now that it's been a year, Kelly has since gone on hikes, picked up sports again, and he was even able to help decorate his home for the holidays.

He said he really has just been able to live the life he wants.

"I never thought that I would be able to do as much as I have in the short amount of time I have," Kelly said. "Here I am today, there is no limit so far that I have."

Kelly will be having his one year follow up appointment this week.