Since five years ago Ismael received a double lung transplant, his life gave a radical spinBut not only in terms of quality of life, but also because he decided to publicize his success story, encourage donation and encourage future transplant recipients because “no matter how serious the disease is, everything can turn out well.”
Ismael Mayor, 43 years old, a sports journalist on radio Alcoy de la Cadena Ser, became this week, at the XVII national meeting of transplant coordinators in Zaragoza, a reference, and wanted to make clear to the attendees, experts and professional colleagues, that “the only thing that makes death meaningful is organ donation” because transplants are life “and donate the most beautiful act, beyond belief.”
With cystic fibrosis from birth that progressively damaged his lungs, Ismael reached his twenties with a 26% capacity and apprehensive about spirometry that measured the amount of air he could retain in his lungs, and that each time they gave him a worse prognosis, inexorably bringing him closer to the waiting list for transplantation.
Transplant that arrived in September 2016. Ismael remembers that when he left the radio they called him from the La Fe hospital in Valencia where there were two lungs waiting for him: “Slowly but surely,” the doctor told him then. That same day he went into the operating room.
The operation was a success and the postoperative period only took him a month and a half in the hospital, a time in which he was focused on rehabilitation and give power to lungs that at first they resisted because everything needs a process “and you have to learn to use them“the doctors told him.
Now your lung capacity exceeds 96%, a percentage that places you in absolute normality.
In this time, Ismael has realized that the disease has brought him a lot of empathy. “At first you think you are alone, but in no disease you are, not in this one.”
In the Valencian Community, Ismael has found a Cystic Fibrosis association which has been vital in his physical and mental recovery, but also a whatsapp group, “Los Pulmonitos”, name with which they honor the solidarity monkey, mascot of cystic fibrosis.
So among the chat colleagues he met in the rehabilitation sessions, the CF association and the talks he has given at this time to raise awareness that “donating matters”, Ismael has bet on solidarity, which has culminated in a book, The transplant, my second chance, in which he tells his story with a dedication to donors and, especially, to that stranger or unknown who gave him his lungs and more time to live.
In this congress, Ismael said he was excited “because you see how patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) want to donate their organs because they understand that if this disease has won the game, they want them to others benefit from it“.
“It is an act of incredible generosity” Ismael continues and, in honor of that person who donated his organs and will never know, pampers his lungs, takes his medications and follows all the medical recommendations to be able to tell the donor that his act “was worth it.”
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