D EFIN IN G M O M EN TS - Barnes-Jewish Hospital
D EFIN IN G M O M EN TS - Barnes-Jewish Hospital
D EFIN IN G M O M EN TS - Barnes-Jewish Hospital
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too young to settle<br />
for a life of limitations<br />
Rory McCue’s life changed when he was 20.<br />
In 2003, McCue was on the precipice of launching<br />
his adult life. He was healthy, athletic and a little<br />
more than a year away from graduating from college.<br />
All of that changed in a single evening during a fire<br />
in his fraternity house.<br />
Suffering from extreme smoke inhalation, he was<br />
in a hospital in Springfield, Ill., for eight weeks, five<br />
of them on a ventilator. Even after he was released,<br />
he never fully recovered. He experienced shortness<br />
of breath constantly, and because of recurrent<br />
infections, both of his lungs were scarred.<br />
“In the blink of an eye, I went from being on top of the<br />
world in so many ways, to living the life of a frail shut-in<br />
wearing an oxygen mask 24 hours a day,” says McCue.<br />
McCue admits he was afraid of having to live the rest<br />
of his life this way. But he was even more afraid of the<br />
alternative–a lung transplant. His local physician began<br />
encouraging him to contact the Washington University<br />
and <strong>Barnes</strong>-<strong>Jewish</strong> Transplant Center. McCue did<br />
visit and was even evaluated in fall 2004, but it was<br />
2007 before he agreed to have his name placed on<br />
the transplant list.<br />
Although McCue was often sick and had a few scares<br />
and hospitalizations, he took himself off the transplant<br />
list in 2009. “I think I was still reeling from the whole<br />
accident and my heart just wasn’t in it.”<br />
Seven years passed since the fire and all of his friends<br />
had moved on. Wanda Panus, RN, his pre-transplant<br />
coordinator at <strong>Barnes</strong>-<strong>Jewish</strong>, and the rest of the<br />
transplant team knew the transplant was right for McCue<br />
Rory McCue<br />
but they also knew it was necessary for the patient<br />
to make that decision. “Understandably, Rory was<br />
afraid to go through with the transplant for fear of the<br />
unknown,” says Panus.<br />
With so much working against him, McCue said it came<br />
down to a quality-of-life issue. “The hope of having<br />
a better life outweighed the fear and uncertainty<br />
of a transplant. I was ready to see what the world had<br />
in store for me and I was going to make it or fail with<br />
that decision,” says McCue.<br />
In August 2010, McCue decided it was time to be<br />
reactivated on the transplant list. Eleven months later,<br />
he got the call from <strong>Barnes</strong>-<strong>Jewish</strong> that it was time for<br />
the transplant. “It’s funny because in some ways that<br />
day is so vivid and clear in my mind and in other ways,<br />
it is just a blur,” he says.<br />
Rory McCue’s life changed again when he was 28.<br />
On July 14, 2011, McCue received two lungs. McCue’s<br />
right lung was not as bad as the left but physicians were<br />
concerned the right lung would infect the new one if both<br />
weren’t replaced.<br />
In the blink of an eye, McCue went from a life of no hope<br />
and desperation to one with unlimited possibilities.<br />
“It has been a complete 180,” he says. Before the transplant,<br />
McCue admits he avoided stairs like the plague. In April<br />
2012, he was hiking in the Rocky Mountains.<br />
McCue is extremely grateful to the entire transplant<br />
team at <strong>Barnes</strong>-<strong>Jewish</strong> as well as the nurses on unit<br />
7100, thoracic surgery, who cared for him after the<br />
transplant. “Most importantly,” he says, “I’m thankful<br />
and appreciate the decision that a family had to make<br />
that night. It has given me all that I have now.”<br />
4 BARNES-JEWISH HOSPITAL • 2011 Annual Report<br />
D<strong>EF<strong>IN</strong></strong><strong>IN</strong>G MOM<strong>EN</strong><strong>TS</strong><br />
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