I don't know this man, and unfortunately he has passed away. I wanted to post it out of respect for him and the work that he and his mother drove to complete. I guess his one statement just stuck with me this morning as I read this article and I wanted others with CF to read it as well as an acknowledgement to Josh.
<i>Abbott, who at that point could not breathe without the aid of a portable oxygen tank, said, "I feel like I'm giving life back to somebody who will need it" when he heard the bill had passed.</i>
Full article below....
Double-lung transplant patient dies at Shands
BY DIANE CHUN
SUN STAFF WRITER
November 10. 2006 6:01AM
Gainesville resident Josh Abbott spent most of his life fighting for every breath. The enemy was cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease that clogged his lungs with sticky mucus and left him vulnerable to repeated bouts of infection and pneumonia.
When Abbott received a double-lung transplant in December, he took a deep breath and began to imagine a future.
He said that every morning when he woke up, he thought about what he could do that day that he wasn't able to do before the transplant.
"And do you know what the answer is?" he said. "Everything!"
However, on Wednesday, he died at Shands at the University of Florida. He was 30.
Those who knew Josh Abbott also know he wouldn't want to be defined by the disease that limited him.
For two years running, he and his mother, Karen Deeter, went before the Florida Legislature, asking legislators to change a loophole in the law that stood between adult cystic fibrosis patients and the lung transplants that could give them a near-normal life.
In the final hours of last year's session, legislators passed a Medicaid reform package that included a clause that made it possible for adult CF patients to gain access to Medicaid dollars that had already been appropriated for lung transplants.
Rep. Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, sponsored the bill in the Florida House, while state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, pushed a similar measure in the Senate.
Abbott, who at that point could not breathe without the aid of a portable oxygen tank, said, "I feel like I'm giving life back to somebody who will need it" when he heard the bill had passed.
With its passage, the measure made it much less likely that someone would be turned away from a transplant because of an inability to pay.
On Thursday, Cretul said that Abbott had touched him as few of his constituents ever had.
"He was a fighting young man, and everything he did, he did for other people with his condition," Cretul said. "I was blessed to be able to work with him."
Karen Deeter said that her son had attended Saturday services at B'Nai Israel Synagogue, talking with friends, seemingly fine. Sunday afternoon, he collapsed at home.
Funeral services will be held for Abbott at B'nai Israel today at 11.
Abbott had wanted to be an organ donor if anything happened to him, and was able to donate his liver and both kidneys, his mother said.
"He received the gift of life almost a year ago, and, today, he gave the gift of life to others," Deeter said Thursday.
His mother said that Abbott would want those who knew him to remember the good days and the independent breathing he enjoyed for nearly a year.
"As he said so often, 'Every day I wake up is a good day,' "she said.
Diane Chun can be reached at 374-5041 or chund@ gvillesun.com
<i>Abbott, who at that point could not breathe without the aid of a portable oxygen tank, said, "I feel like I'm giving life back to somebody who will need it" when he heard the bill had passed.</i>
Full article below....
Double-lung transplant patient dies at Shands
BY DIANE CHUN
SUN STAFF WRITER
November 10. 2006 6:01AM
Gainesville resident Josh Abbott spent most of his life fighting for every breath. The enemy was cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease that clogged his lungs with sticky mucus and left him vulnerable to repeated bouts of infection and pneumonia.
When Abbott received a double-lung transplant in December, he took a deep breath and began to imagine a future.
He said that every morning when he woke up, he thought about what he could do that day that he wasn't able to do before the transplant.
"And do you know what the answer is?" he said. "Everything!"
However, on Wednesday, he died at Shands at the University of Florida. He was 30.
Those who knew Josh Abbott also know he wouldn't want to be defined by the disease that limited him.
For two years running, he and his mother, Karen Deeter, went before the Florida Legislature, asking legislators to change a loophole in the law that stood between adult cystic fibrosis patients and the lung transplants that could give them a near-normal life.
In the final hours of last year's session, legislators passed a Medicaid reform package that included a clause that made it possible for adult CF patients to gain access to Medicaid dollars that had already been appropriated for lung transplants.
Rep. Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, sponsored the bill in the Florida House, while state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, pushed a similar measure in the Senate.
Abbott, who at that point could not breathe without the aid of a portable oxygen tank, said, "I feel like I'm giving life back to somebody who will need it" when he heard the bill had passed.
With its passage, the measure made it much less likely that someone would be turned away from a transplant because of an inability to pay.
On Thursday, Cretul said that Abbott had touched him as few of his constituents ever had.
"He was a fighting young man, and everything he did, he did for other people with his condition," Cretul said. "I was blessed to be able to work with him."
Karen Deeter said that her son had attended Saturday services at B'Nai Israel Synagogue, talking with friends, seemingly fine. Sunday afternoon, he collapsed at home.
Funeral services will be held for Abbott at B'nai Israel today at 11.
Abbott had wanted to be an organ donor if anything happened to him, and was able to donate his liver and both kidneys, his mother said.
"He received the gift of life almost a year ago, and, today, he gave the gift of life to others," Deeter said Thursday.
His mother said that Abbott would want those who knew him to remember the good days and the independent breathing he enjoyed for nearly a year.
"As he said so often, 'Every day I wake up is a good day,' "she said.
Diane Chun can be reached at 374-5041 or chund@ gvillesun.com