Profiles | Matt Kamasz

Walking from his studio apartment in San Francisco on Wednesday morning to have his blood drawn at a clinic nearly eight city blocks away, former Deschutes County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Kamasz said despite the pain from the incision in his chest he can already feel that his new lungs have eased his breathing.

The 34-year-old Bend resident underwent a double lung transplant operation on July 27 at the UCSF Medical Center. He was released a couple weeks later from the hospital to a nearby apartment where his wife, Sarah Kamasz, will dispense his medication and a nurse will stop by regularly to check on him.

"It's nice to be here. It's nice and quiet," Matt said. "I don't find myself having to catch my breath now. It feels nice. It will feel much better when the incision doesn't hurt as bad."

Cut from armpit to armpit, each layer of muscle and tissue in Matt's chest was pulled open by surgeons who removed his diseased lungs one at a time and replaced them with healthy lungs from a young donor. Physicians still aren't certain what caused the air sacs in Matt's lungs to turn to scar tissue, but they agree he likely had less than a year to live without a transplant.

In the days since the surgery, Matt said, he has mostly been concentrating on getting past the pain. The reality of his new life with his new lungs hasn't yet sunk in.

"I think this will work out pretty well," he said. "As far as my thoughts and feelings about it, it hasn't hit me yet. I'm still under medication."

Last week, Matt had a second surgery to treat an acid reflux problem by wrapping his esophagus. The goal was to keep Matt from aspirating food into his new lungs

"It went fine. He seems to be swallowing fine," said Dr. Charles W. Hoopes, the cardiothoracic surgeon who performed Matt's lung transplant and esophagus surgery. "He needs to get into the rehab mode for the next six weeks. He needs to be working on his exercise, getting his conditioning back up to where it was before the lung disease."

Matt, once a cross-country runner and Los Angeles police officer who ran eight miles a day, was originally diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis about seven years ago after a lung collapsed.

Now, physicians think it is more likely he had scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder that can cause a reduction in lung function. Dr. Jeffrey Golden, UCSF medical director of lung transplantation, said it is highly unlikely the scleroderma would return to infect Matt's new lungs. His old lungs will be used for research into interstitial lung diseases such as scleroderma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which mostly have no known causes.

For at least the next six weeks, Matt said, he'll visit the hospital for frequent checkups and bloodwork. He and Sarah, a fourth-grade teacher at Lava Ridge Elementary School, will spend time walking to build his strength and adjusting to Matt's new low-sodium diet.

"Anything out of a can is a no-no. Matt has to have less than 2,000 milligrams of sodium each day," Sarah said, reading from a hospital handout. "Sodium controls fluid balance and maintains blood volume and blood pressure. A high-sodium diet can raise blood pressure and cause fluid retention. Water can collect around the lungs, which can lead to shortness of breath."

Leaving the hospital was both a moment of happiness and a moment of fear for Sarah. She said it took nearly two hours for the couple to get through Matt's nightly ritual of medications and therapies before they could go to sleep their first night on their own.

"It should get quicker once we know how to use the devices," Sarah said. "It's a lot of pressure on the both of us to make sure we do everything right."

More than anything, Matt said, he wants to thank the Bend community for e-mail messages, phone calls and prayers of support.

The message he would like to spread, he said, is to encourage those who are able to become organ donors.

In Oregon, people can declare their desire to donate their organs by having a "D" placed on their driver's license or by filling out a unified donor card and carrying it in their wallet, said Warren Becker, program manager of the Oregon Donor Program. Nationally, he said, only about 50 percent of eligible donors are actually converted into organ donors.

"However, in the state of Oregon, having a 'D' on your driver's license or carrying a unified donor card only signifies your consent to be a donor," Becker said. "At the time of death, the hospital will approach the family and say, 'Will you honor your loved one's wish to be a donor?' If the family says no, no donation takes place."

It is important, Becker said, to not only carry an organ donor card but to inform family members about the decision to donate organs long before that decision needs to be made. The conversation, he said, is not about death but about giving life.

Without a willing organ donor, Matt and Sarah have said they know Matt could still be waiting for his second chance. As it is, they are beginning the rest of their lives. They marked their second wedding anniversary while Matt was still in the hospital.

"Next time you visit the DMV, fill out an organ donor card," Matt said. "It's something that people don't really think about."

Story first published in The Bend Bulletin, Aug. 11, 2005. Reprinted with permission.