Tom Archer helps others breathe easier

ST. Louis Post - Dispatch | Harry Jackson Jr.
Tom Archer tells about life before and after a double-lung transplant while holding his miniature daschund Adalbert.

Thomas Archer wakes up smiling every day.

Eight years after his double-lung transplant, “I’m still breathing and I’m alive,” he said. “On average, people don’t survive longer than five years after a transplant.”

A man of faith, he figures his work with others who face or have faced lung transplants has earned him time to beat the odds.

Indeed, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says about 78 percent of single-lung transplant patients survive the first year. About 63 percent survive three years and about half survive five years.

Survival rates for double-lung transplants are slightly better, on average, 6.6 years, the agency says, adding that the rates are getting longer.

Most critical is survival through the first year, getting past rejection and regaining vigor that may have been lost from the lung disease.
______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor TODAY
In California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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