Message from Bill

We went to an earlier dinner last night at Racine's, After we got home around 7:15, the phone rang and it was Dr. Zamora informing Dean that a donor lung was available and Dean was shocked. He was totally surprised and not quite sure how to respond. We both ran around the house getting ourselves together and that's when Dean wrote his message to you all.

We arrived at the hospital around 9pm and did pre-operation tests and during that time Frazier and his friend Mark arrived from Ft. Collins and were able to see Dean before he went into the operation.

Surgery started at midnight and lasted until about 4:30/5:00am. I received two phone calls form the nurse in the operating room during the surgery keeping us all informed about how things were going and everything was very very positive. We know that the lung came from a 23 year old male donor and we are of course thankful for the gift he has given our family.

By 5:30 this morning Frazier and I came into see him in the ICU and he was connected to the ventilator. Around noon today he came off the ventilator with great success which is amazing!

He is now talking and communicating and giving directions to both family and hospital staff. We expect that he will be in the hospital for several weeks and for now ask that we have no visitors or flowers sent, just your good thoughts and prayers.

Haverly has her laptop so we can communicate via email and the blog this weekend.

Bill