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On his way home from getting a life-saving double lung transplant, Pat Lacy saw a sign.
Several, actually.
At first the popular Omaha accountant and bar owner thought the trail of placards — planted from the Interstate exit to his house — was some sort of advertising gimmick.
One said, “The Accountant’s Back in Town.”
Eventually it sunk in: The signs were a welcome home tribute to him.
While his “new lease on life” indeed is a gift unlike any other, Lacy, 57, said the double lung transplant has yielded responses and rewards he hadn’t imagined.
Take the hundreds of letters and e-mails he received after the July surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Many came from people who said they had thought about being an organ donor, but finally registered after reading Lacy’s story.
“That’s a big deal,” said Lacy. “It makes you feel good.”
His plans are to connect with an organ donation agency to see what he can do to raise awareness and funds for the cause dear to him and his extended family.
Consider, also, the impact Lacy’s fight has had on neighbors like Cindy Lampe.
Lampe said it was too “cliché” to say that her neighbor’s bounce back from the brink of death makes her more appreciative of life.
“What it does is make you more receptive to everything, good or bad, that happens every day, ” she said. “It’s been an amazing experience to go through as a friend.”
Two months have passed since Lacy returned from his recovery period at Mayo, where he reported not once, but twice for surgery.
The first time, Lacy awoke from anesthesia without new lungs. The organs that were to be his, it turned out, were unsuitable.
While such a dramatic dry run is not unheard of in the transplant world, it heightened the local buzz about Lacy’s journey. So did the fact that two of his siblings had died of the same rare genetic disease he thought he had dodged.
Sitting last week in the Old Mattress Factory, a downtown bar and grill he co-owns, Lacy was asked about his most notable change.
“Well, I can breathe,” he said. And that is “amazing,” he added, given how winded he got before.
No longer does the 6-foot-3 athlete — who worked out well into his 50s before his illness worsened — need the daytime oxygen tank. Absent, too, is the breathing machine he slept with nightly.
Fifteen pounds shy of his pre-surgery weight, he is back to lifting weights. He takes long walks.
He works most mornings.
Until his immune system gets stronger, he’s told to avoid crowds. His sensitive system has loved ones taking better care of themselves, though. Co-workers are getting flu shots, and more hand sanitizer bottles have popped up at his businesses. His kids are more germ-conscious.
But for a minor infection, Lacy said he has had few problems as he recovers and takes anti-rejection and immune suppressant drugs.
An accountant by trade, Lacy also is lifelong member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Parish.
Wife Susan is a nurse anesthetist. Son Jordan, 23, is in medical school, and sons Connor, 21, and Kyle, 19, are both in college. Daughter Cassie, 17, has Down syndrome and attends Omaha Mercy High.
Lacy said his post-transplant outlook has him working less than the old 70-to-80-hour weeks, and focusing more on family, friends and faith.
Perhaps his biggest anxiety, Lacy said, is awaiting the day he may meet the donor family to tell them what two new lungs have meant to him and those around him. (Mayo’s policy is to put at least a year between the transplant and any contact.)
Until then, he said, he lives without fear of what lies ahead.
“Every day has been better than the last.”
Contact the writer:
444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
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