Holding his breath: Rick Schmidt's lung transplant journey

I began to follow Rick for the Free Press in June, 2022 when he learned he qualified for a lung transplant. I followed him through the ups and downs of that experience, talking to him, his wife Sara Jane, members of the Transplant Manitoba team and a surgeon in Edmonton who was part of the team that transplanted the donor lung. And I was there when Rick came home to Winnipeg from the hospital through to his decision to enter palliative care in late September, 2023. The articles below, in the Winnipeg Free Press, chronicle that journey. Rick died Oct. 2. 

1. Holding his breath, June 14, 2022. Rick starts his transplant journey, beginning with a description of the disease that propelled him in that direction.

2. Have the organ donation conversation, July 18, 2022. One goal for Rick in telling his story was to encourage people to sign up to be organ donors. He was never so happy as to learn someone had indeed signed up.

3. Health care contacts prove to be a breath of fresh air, Sept. 27, 2022. Rick (and Sara) had nothing be good things to say about the people who cared for him during his transplant journey. 

4. Hope and worry: finally in queue for lung transplant, Feb. 4, 2023. Rick didn't wait as long as some to be accepted for a transplant, but it still seemed to take forever. 

5. Take a deep breath while waiting for transplant operation, April 1, 2023. Getting accepted into the lung transplant program is one thing; waiting for a suitable lung to come available was another.

6. Sigh of relief: Rick gets the call to go to Edmonton and gets a new lung, April 17, 2023. The call came early on April 10 and they were off to Alberta for a successful transplant surgery.

7. Respiratory roller coaster: The long and uneven road to recovery post-transplant, July 30, 2023. If everything had gone as expected, Rick would have returned to Winnipeg 2-3 weeks after the transplant surgery. Things did not go as expected.

8. Putting his life in God's hands: Rick opts for palliative care, Oct. 2, 2023. After six months of ups and many downs, and with no guarantee the lung transplant would ever be successful, Rick made the decision to end the process. He died on Oct. 2 believing "the same God who loved me in life will love me after I'm gone."