‘I’ve got a wonderful life’: Double lung transplant recipient D.D. Fischer advocates for organ donation at Wednesday event

QUINCY — Once Dwayne “D.D.” Fischer returned home from receiving a double lung transplant, he was determined to do things differently with his new life.

“I was still in the hospital, and I said to (sons) Mike and Ryan and (wife) Janie that this was not going to be business as usual,” Fischer said. “I didn’t want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro or fly around the world. Instead, I had a bucket list of service. I wanted to build a house for Habitat for Humanity, I wanted to teach free for a year, and I wanted to mentor kids.”

He quickly learned, however, completing his bucket list was going to be difficult in this new life.

“I’ve got a double lung transplant, and I can’t be around kids who get sick,” Fischer said with a laugh. “I can’t be around sawdust to help build a house. I have a suppressed immune system. What an amazing sense of humor God has. None of the stuff on my list was on his list.

“What I came to realize was I do know what I can do, and that’s talk about organ donation. I can talk about my story. I can talk about the power of prayer. That’s what has led us to today.”

Fischer, 74, and his wife Janie, along with the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, were the hosts of an organ donation and transplant awareness event Wednesday night at Quincy Country Club.

Guests attending the event included six local people who had a double lung transplant, six who had a kidney transplant, and two who had a liver transplant. Many of them have formed a support network with each other. Fischer hopes to help other people considering a transplant or on a transplant waiting list.  

‘I have some very bad news for you’ 

Fischer is passionate about creating awareness about the importance of organ donation. He shared Wednesday night his personal experience about receiving a double lung transplant in 2017. 

His story began in September 2014 when he took a walk with Janie after dinner. As he walked up a hill near his home, he noticed he was short of breath. A few months later, he developed a dry cough and a tickle in his throat. As it lasted a while, his sons convinced him to see a doctor.

A Quincy doctor diagnosed him with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The disease, which scars the lungs, is irreversible and progressive. The diagnosis shocked Fischer, who had a medical history clean as a whistle — healthy, fit and never smoked.

“I literally went to sit down to hear the CAT scan read to me, and I was told, ‘Come into my office. I have some very bad news for you,’” Fischer said. “I’d never heard of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, nor did I know it was a life-ending disease. I learned I had maybe three, four years (left to live) without a double lung transplant, which I had never heard of. You can imagine how I came home, and I had to tell Janie. It was a complete shock.”

Fischer went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for a second opinion, then qualified for a transplant there. However, a year went by without getting a call from Mayo. Fischer’s pulmonologist then suggested getting on the transplant list at Barnes. 

“Twelve days later, my phone rang,” Fischer said. “They said we have a match.”

‘Why are you afraid of a double lung transplant?’

Receiving a double lung transplant, however, scared Fischer. He reached out to several friends to tell them about his diagnosis. One of them, Tom Arnold, gave Fischer the words he needed to hear.

“Tom said, ‘Why are you afraid of a double lung transplant?’” Fischer recalled.

Arnold, a certified public accountant, told him about Mike Kropp from Mount Sterling, who he said was in “real bad shape” but received a double lung transplant. 

“Tom said, ‘The next tax season, I looked out my window, and (Kropp) hopped out of his pickup truck and came in here,’” Fischer said. “Ten minutes later, Mike Kropp was on the phone with me.”

Dr. Daniel Kreisel leads the lung transplant program at Barnes-Jewish Hospital as the surgical program director and section chief of cardiothoracic transplantation. He performed the surgery on June 28, 2017. 

“After the surgery, (doctors) kept me under (anesthesia) for a good day, day and a half,” Fischer said. “When I was awake. I knew within 30 minutes that I was brand new. Thirty minutes after that, I was walking. I was holding on to a wheelchair, pushing it and walking. I just built from there.”

Fischer hospitalized with meningitis, COVID

Fischer’s challenges, however, weren’t complete.

He developed in March 2020 a type of meningitis that mainly affects people with weakened immune systems. Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Fischer said the transplant team met him in the Barnes-Jewish Hospital emergency room and took control. He spent 15 days in the hospital and made a full recovery. 

He was infected with COVID-19 in November 2020 and spent 48 days at Barnes-Jewish. Forty were in the intensive care unit. His life was saved once again. 

“I have some diminished lung capacity from the COVID, but I will tell you, I’ve got a wonderful life,” Fischer said.

He says he has a heightened awareness of friendships and the power of prayer. He now confronts topic such as his own mortality that weren’t previously easy to confront.

“It was Barnes who fixed me, but it was all you guys who prayed for me who helped heal me,” he said.

‘If you’re not an organ donor, please think about that’

Wednesday’s event was a chance for Fischer to thank his friends and his medical team. It also was a chance for him to emphasize the importance of organ donation.

“I’m talking to you today because of some guy I didn’t even know,” he said. “When his life ended, I got a brand new life. I always say if you’re not an organ donor, please think about that. Think about the kind of gift that you can give. I’ve got six years almost with a double lung transplant. I’ve seen my son, Michael, get married. I would have never seen that. Jamie and I had our 50th wedding anniversary I would have never seen that. 

“An absolutely world-class organization called Barnes-Jewish Hospital provides this amazing surgery to our community and surrounding communities. It’s amazing how many others’ lives have been impacted and affected and prolonged wonderfully by this hospital which is just 100 miles away.”

Dr. Ramsey Hachem, medical program director at Barnes-Jewish, was at Quincy Country Club with Kreisel to celebrate with Fischer. The lung transplant program at Barnes-Jewish Hospital recently celebrated performing 2,000 lung transplants.

“It’s so relevant for all transplant patients,” Hachem said. “It’s not only D.D.’s celebration, and I think D.D. would say the same. Really it’s a celebration of life for all transplant recipients, because it gives people a new life when they have an organ transplant. It’s important for us to join in that celebration.”

“Many people aren’t aware that this is a modality,” Kriesel said. “Some people are scared to come to St. Louis and be evaluated, but it’s life changing. I think it’s important for people to know that this saves lives.”