1st lung transplant at Spectrum Health

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Joseph Steponski has become the first recipient of a lung transplant in West Michigan.  
Steponski used to cough 400 times a day, but since the surgery, the 59-year-old said he hasn't coughed once.

Steponski met the media at Spectrum Health on Friday, where the six-hour surgery took place Feb. 4. All members of the media who attended the press conference had to use hand sanitizer since his immune system is compromised.

Steponski found out that he was sick about a year ago after he literally coughed a hole through his lung. The Wyoming man has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that scars the lungs more and more each year.

In the surgery, his right lung was removed and replaced with a donor lung. Without a transplant, he likely wouldn't have lived another two years.

"The only thing I had to look forward to is dying, now I can live," said Steponski.

He began to tear up as he talked about how grateful he was to the donor's family, who did not not know prior to the surgery.

"I'm breathing again," he said, " and that's a miracle. I haven't been breathing this easy and this well in 10 years or more. I cannot truly remember. It's something that you normally take for granted, can become so hard."

A year ago, Steponski would have had to go to Ann Arbor or Cleveland to receive this surgery. His family has a fund set up for him at Fifth Third Bank. His family told 24 Hour News 8 that Steponski lost his job and is behind on bills due to his sickness.

Spectrum said they hope to do between 10 and 12 more transplants this year.