Mike Gojevic is a walking, breathing miracle. Just three and a half months ago, the Halfmoon Bay man's lungs had all but stopped working and he was literally one breath away from death.
All that changed when a life-saving double lung transplant was performed at 1 a.m. on Feb. 13.
This past year has been so strange. It's gone from I feel fine, we're going to Las Vegas for a holiday to I'm on death's doorstep to I feel fine, Gojevic shared. It was like someone pressed pause on PVR, my life was on hold. I couldn't go anywhere. And then the transplant, and it was like someone pressed play again, he said.
Gojevic first noticed his chest was sore at his daughter Raylene's birthday party on Feb. 14, 2012. What he thought was a cold turned into pneumonia. Within a few days Gojevic felt well enough to take the trip to Las Vegas.
However, on the plane down to the Nevada city, things took a huge turn for the worse. By the time the plane landed, Gojevic could hardly breathe; he was rushed to hospital for 10 days. After that, a medivac was summoned to bring him back to a hospital in Vancouver.
In a cruel twist of fate, the insurance company initially refused to pay Gojevic's expenses, claiming the illness was a pre-existing condition. A call to CTV news and an interview by Linda Steele with the insurer soon had that decision reversed.
[The bill] was $142,000, Gojevic remembered.
The next big hurdle was how they were going to cope until the lungs he desperately needed were available. Fortunately, Gojevic and his wife Arletha said, the community stepped up. Both of them are amazed and utterly thankful for the kindness their friends and neighbours have shown the couple.
By the time the transplant came, Mike was consigned to an easy chair for months. He wasn't able to move much, and a couple of frightening instances when the health professionals at the hospital had him attempt to walk in the room had convinced him to not leave the chair.
All that changed on Feb. 12 when he got the call that the lungs were available. By 1 a.m. the next day he was in surgery.
On Feb. 14 he woke up briefly, and by Feb. 15 he was aware enough to realize that in spite of the many tubes and apparatus he was hooked up to, he was already able to breathe better and he was feeling better.
On Feb. 16 he was able to stand up and do the crab shuffle. Two days later in the ward he was actually able to walk untethered by his constant companion, the oxygen tank.
It's just amazing. To be able to take a big breath in. I've now become quite the advocate for organ donation, he said.
Given the statistics for organ donation in B.C., it is amazing that Gojevic got his lungs before time ran out.
As of last June, only 18.5 per cent of our population had registered with the BC Organ Donor Registry. Almost anyone can be a donor, age is not important; the health of the organ determines its qualification as a donation. And while 85 per cent of Canadians are said to be in favour of organ donation, only 15 to 20 per cent are actually registered to do so. Many people are under the impression that because they've indicated on their driver's licence their desire to donate their organs, that's all they need to do. Such is not the case. You need to go on-line and register. The website is www.transplant.bc.ca. Once there, just follow the prompts.
Many organs burned or buried could save lives. I met the mom of a 30-year-old organ donor. Her son had saved five lives with his lungs, kidneys, heart and eyes, Gojevic recalled.
He understands the reluctance society has to talk about death and organ donations, and he's quick to acknowledge the pain another family had to deal with when he received his life-saving lungs.
As happy as I am to get the lungs is how sad someone else was to lose a loved one. All I know is the donor was a young person with good lungs, a non-smoker, he said.
I wish we had 85 per cent of the people registered. That's the big learning from this whole thing. We need to do a better job of making people aware [of what they need to do to register as a donor and of the critical shortage of organs.]
Right now the man who never missed a day of work from illness since he was 16 and who rarely took medication of any kind, requires 32 pills daily to keep his body from rejecting his new lungs. He laughed that half the pills are for anti-rejection and the other half are to counteract the side effects of the anti-rejection medication.
That's just small potatoes. I take pills three times a day, and three times a day I check my vital signs. It's a new life lots of time to think and reflect. I have a different perspective on life. We don't get upset by the little things anymore. Work and a career are important and you need money to live, but for us, giving back is more important now, he said.
Gojevic isn't back to work yet, but he has been able to do all the mundane chores homeowners do. He's back mowing and doing yard work. Being able to do so is a miracle for this inspiring man and his equally uplifting wife.
We were overwhelmed by people's kindness, and as soon as I'm able, I'll be contributing to this great community, Gojevic said.
