Organ transplant helps Phil enjoy a full life
This week is Donate Life Week, which is a national awareness week that promotes donation and encourages more people to talk to their family and register. While most Australians believe it is important to be an organ and tissue donor, only one in three are registered.
The Alfred has a long and established history with lung transplantation. Since our first surgery in 1990, more than 1700 lung transplants have been performed and the team has continued to develop and improve its practices ever since. With survival rates of 96 per cent after one year and 74 per cent after five years, The Alfred’s patient outcomes following lung transplantation are the world’s best. It is this commitment to ongoing development and research that keeps The Alfred as the premier lung transplant service in Australia and the fifth-largest internationally.
One of our earliest patients was Phil Lewis, who suffered from cystic fibrosis — an inherited disorder which damages the lungs and digestive system, leading to irreversible damage. There is no cure.
Phil struggled to remember a time in his childhood when he could run like others his age. But he had his best mate and brother, Jeff, alongside him, and the two battled both life and the genetic cystic fibrosis disease together.
“We were always brothers-in-arms and not just as in a family,” Phil said. “We grew up trying to survive together, we had dreams together. We both played guitar and were in a band together, we wanted to start a business together.”
Sadly, Jeff passed away after suffering from a bad viral pneumonia about 12 months after undergoing a lung transplant. Despite this, Phil was always confident about a transplant procedure. He remembers a conversation from before his own double-lung transplant in 1996, when he spoke optimistically about the prospect of getting another couple of years of life thanks to the surgery. 25 years later, and Phil has led an incredibly fulfilling life and still can’t believe how much he has left to do.
“Jeff was really unwell and (still) got through it. I was encouraged by that and felt that what happened to him and the reasons he didn’t end up making it, was just really bad luck,” Phil said. “Growing up together with cystic fibrosis, you always kept a pretty short horizon looking into the future. You don’t know where things are going to land, so you live more in the moment.”
Philanthropic support has had a tremendous impact on lung transplantation through the decades, supporting developments in research, laying the cornerstone of the vital lifesaving work that continues to this day. The Alfred also has the only dedicated paediatric lung transplant service in Australia. This ongoing generosity has helped The Alfred to become world leaders in this space.
Miraculously, Phil would go on to spend 20 years working at The Alfred following his transplant — firstly in biomedical engineering and then in the neurosurgery department. While there he had trouble with his heart for about 12 months after the transplant. It would spontaneously go into arrhythmia, hitting 200 beats a minute regularly. It was not uncommon for him to be working at The Alfred, feel something change and go downstairs to admit himself to the emergency department.
“(The transplant) has allowed me to live what I think has been a pretty productive life,” Phil said. “To have a family, to be a dad and to make a positive contribution to the world, is something that I would never have thought possible. “I don’t feel like I’m finished yet, I feel like I’ve got more to come, which is crazy to think about — it's been 25 years, but I feel like I’ve got more to go.
“The gratitude I have for the people involved, and their dedication, is something I often reflect on. It is a big part of my feelings towards the whole process. “It is such a tough job to do. I only managed to get through it with the help of the amazing people at The Alfred and, of course, my family.”
Right now there are 1750 Australians waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant, and thousands more whose lives could be transformed through organ or tissue donation. While about four in five Australians support donation, there are about 13 million people aged 16 and over who are eligible to register as an organ and tissue donor, but haven’t.
For information and to register as an organ and tissue donor, visit the Donate Life website.
