Tom Terrill

One day when he was playing golf, Tom Terrill became short of breath. A physician friend was golfing, and Tom mentioned his breathlessness to him. The physician friend recommended Tom get checked immediately.

Later that day, Tom was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease. The primary symptom of this fast-progressing disorder is shortness of breath. Within four years, Tom was dependent on an oxygen tank and so ill that he could not cross a room without being exhausted. At 73, he became one of the oldest patients in the nation to receive a lung transplant and the oldest ever at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Today, two years later, Tom is healthy. "I'm not as fast or strong as I used to be — before my pulmonary fibrosis began — because the medication I have to take decreases muscle strength," he says. But his lung function has improved post-transplant and allowed him to resume golfing, travel and volunteer work.

"I'm very indebted and grateful to Mayo Clinic," he says.

Tom's first experience with Mayo Clinic was several years after his diagnosis.

"I had already been to several leading hospitals to inquire about my condition, and they all told me there was nothing they could do — I was too old for a lung transplant, which is currently the only option for treatment of this condition," says Tom. "My prognosis was three to five years, and three years had already passed."

Then Tom had lunch with a physician retiring from Mayo Clinic in Arizona — a friend of his son. "He said, 'Why don't you get a lung transplant?'" says Tom. "I told him I'd been told I was too old. He said that age isn't really a factor as much as general health. He told me to go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and he scheduled an appointment for me."

Tom went to Mayo Clinic for an examination and was eventually approved for a lung transplant. The process involved physicians evaluating every aspect of his health.

"Lungs for transplant are in short supply, so they didn't want to give a transplant to someone who had another serious health condition that would shorten their life," says Tom.

When Tom was approved for a transplant, he was 109th on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) regional transplant list.

"That wasn't promising," says Tom. "My health was deteriorating rapidly. It wasn't likely I'd receive a transplant in time, but I was at peace with that possibility. I'd done everything I could and had many people praying for me."

Shortly after Tom was put on the transplant list, UNOS changed its criteria to base patient rankings on need versus the date they were put on the transplant list. Tom immediately went from 109th on the list to 9th.

Within three months of being listed for lung transplantation, he got the call. Mayo Clinic had a lung available for him. He had five to seven hours to get from Kenilworth, Ill., to Rochester, Minn.

Tom was in surgery for four hours while his new left lung was transplanted. He left Mayo Clinic after six days and spent the next two and a half months at the Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester.

"Our time at the Transplant House was special," says Tom's wife, Grace. "It was like being in a fraternity — other families going through transplant. We all supported each other through good and bad. It was a significant part of our experience at Mayo."

Tom's physicians told him he might have lived another six months had he not received a transplant.

"I accepted God's will for whatever would have happened, but I did want more time with my wife and family and I'm very thankful," he says.

Tom is active in his community and with others who have his condition. He is a trustee of the village he lives in and a council chairperson at his church. He is on the board of directors of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation of Chicago, and he and his wife belong to a local support group for people who have interstitial lung disease. He also speaks to groups about the importance of organ donation. More importantly, he is father to four grown children in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Illinois, and 11 grandchildren.

"I'm fortunate — to have met with the retiring doctor who told me to go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, to have been healthy aside from my lung condition, to have had experienced doctors at Mayo Clinic, to have benefited from the criteria change at UNOS, to have a supportive and loving wife and family," says Tom. "I urge anyone who is diagnosed with this condition to go as quickly as possible to a medical center like Mayo Clinic for evaluation. You might feel fine for the first year, but after that the disease progresses quickly. Don't wait until you're too sick to travel for the medical appointments you will need before you can get on a transplant list."