Andy Berger’s Lung Transplant Journey

Andy Berger is a lifelong resident of Portage, Indiana. Andy has spent over 15 years volunteering as a coach in Portage youth sports: basketball, soccer, and baseball. In the past year or two, when coaching energetic children became too much for his health, he found other ways to volunteer and stay active in community sports. If you had children in sports in Portage, you may have seen him coaching. He may have been the coach wearing oxygen over the past few years to teach your son or daughter to kick a soccer ball or dribble a basketball. Andy is also a nurse who sacrificed his health to take care of COVID patients during the pandemic, which is when his breathing difficulty began. He has spent his nursing career taking care of the residents of several area nursing homes. He may have been one of the nurses who took care of your loved ones when they could no longer take care of themselves.

Andy was diagnosed in early 2021 with Interstitial Lung Disease after months of breathing difficulty. Thankfully, he was able to get assistance with his expensive treatments through a program for nurses suffering from lung issues after COVID. He was able to continue his life without significant declines until recently. Medication and infusions were no longer enough.

Andy was put on the waiting list for a double lung transplant on March 12th, 2025, and received the call on March 17th that lungs were available. After spending 12 hours in the hospital waiting, he was disappointed when the organs were not usable, and he was sent home. Andy received a second offer on Wednesday, March 19th, and received a double lung transplant on March 20th. After spending 4 days in ICU, Andy has now been moved to a surgical floor.

After transplant, Andy will need to take over many medications and follow up in Chicago multiple times a week, for the next few months. Andy was still working to help support his family until recently, but will need to take a leave of absence while recovering. The average cost for the first year of anti-rejection medications is about $1500 to $1800 a month. Between paying tolls and parking, and medical bills from testing for the past few months, the financial burden has been increasing since January when he started the road to transplant.