Transplant Recipients In The Swim Of Things

By Rob Rossi

Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Thomas Connelly was short of breath yesterday after his mile run through Point State Park, but he was breathing. He'll take that.

"I couldn't walk across that bridge 10 months ago," Connelly said, pointing to the wooden walkway in the park.

He is 10 months removed from having both his lungs replaced. Last month in Orlando, Fla., he earned two medals at the biyearly U.S. Transplant Games. More a swimmer than a runner, Connelly claimed silver in the 50-meter backstroke and bronze in the 100-meter freestyle events.

"I underestimated the competition," he said. "I didn't give enough credit to the people there."

Organ transplant survivors like Connelly are, according to Mayor Murphy, "nothing short of a miracle." Murphy joined Connelly and other transplant survivors in Point State Park yesterday for the Millennium Mayorthon, a relay through 31 cities in support of organ and tissue donation.

It started April 16 in San Francisco and will end Aug. 11 in Washington, D.C. But yesterday was Pittsburgh's day, thanks to the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, a nonprofit organ procurement organization founded in 1977.

Murphy called Pittsburgh "the national center for transplant surgery." And while a mile run wasn't much for the mayor, a noted marathon enthusiast, it was a long time coming for Connelly.

"I couldn't run a mile in high school because my lungs couldn't take it," he explained. "A full mile, I'm only a little out of breath. But these lungs are 17 years old. It's my legs that are 40."

Connelly waited three years for his double-lung transplant operation at UPMC Presbyterian in October. He said they were the longest years of his life, with him at times questioning: "Am I going to live long enough to get it? Is it going to work?" Even when he heard the good news that donor organs had been found, he said he didn't know how to react: "Somebody died," he remembered thinking.

He said the transplant was, in many ways, the easiest part. At his Hidden Valley home in Jefferson Township, Somerset County, Connelly battled through daily three-hour breathing exercises before the operation. Then he hit the gymnasium for 90-minute workouts. He called it his pre-transplant preparation. His motivation?

"Getting a chance to live," he said.

Other than the organs, Connelly's story isn't much different from Rudy Molnar's or any other transplant survivor. They were sick, tired and scared. They lived for each day because they weren't sure of the next.

Molnar, 62, owns Molnar Service Center in Natrona Heights. His "new" heart is 11 years old. His transplant operation in November 1989 was performed by Dr. Bartley P. Griffith, chief cardiothoracic surgeon at UPMC Presbyterian. Molnar, of Brookline, arrived late to yesterday's Millennium Mayorthon because he thought the event started at the USX Tower. When he showed up, Griffith was chatting with Connelly.

"It's a reunion here," Molnar said.

"I guess so," Griffith responded. "I've talked as much as I ran."

Griffith was the common bond among transplantees yesterday. His only free time was the actual run. Before and after, he was stopped by former patients, thanking him for a new lease on life.

He nodded as Molnar explained, "I was a monkey for the then-new FK506," a heart medication now known as Prograf.

Griffith smiled and applauded when Jane Neely, 45, of Glenshaw, spoke of the 12 years of life she's enjoyed since her heart transplant operation on June 15, 1988. She told the crowd, which included politicians, doctors, transplant survivors and surviving family members of donors: "I got this heart to start living again and haven't stopped since."

Griffith shook Connelly's hand when he learned of his patient's swimming achievements.

"So what's next?" Griffith asked.

"Going the distance," Connelly said.

Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 PG Publishing.

This article posted July 28, 2000.