Help Mike Heal: Post-Transplant Lodging and Care

Hello, this is Austin. I am creating this GoFundMe on behalf of my father, Mike.

As many of you may know, over the last couple of years, dad's health has progressively grown worse and worse due to the deterioration of his lungs from Interstitial Lung Disease that he developed after two instances of catching COVID-19. As the disease progressed, dad was hospitalized more and more until eventually it was decided that a double lung transplant was ultimately necessary and the only thing that would not only increase his quality of life but save his life entirely.

Eventually, we started the journey with dad in getting him approved for a lung transplant and put on the transplant list. On July 14th, 2025, I took dad to the University of Iowa Hospital for appointments that would start him on that process where he was ultimately admitted due to the sheer deterioration of his lungs, which had severely impacted his ability to breathe and ambulate safely on his own.

In that time, dad was rapidly put through a series of tests, appointments, and other various hurdles needed in order to get on the transplant list, which were ultimately successful, and on August 14th, 2025, dad was placed on the transplant list. At that point, all we had to do was wait, and as it turned out, we didn't have to wait incredibly long. The following Wednesday, dad had already received his first accepted offer for a pair of lungs, which unfortunately turned out to not be a good fit in the end. However, two days later on Friday, the University accepted another pair of lungs that turned out to be a fit, and transplant surgery was a go.

Through 11 hours, my mother Kris and I waited patiently and admittedly with a lot of worry. After all, it's an incredibly complicated and invasive surgery. However, I was confident in my dad and in the amazing transplant surgeons at the University. Luckily for all of us, my confidence was well-founded, and at almost midnight, dad was out of surgery and in the Cardiovascular ICU.

Seeing him out of surgery and laying in that bed with so many different tubes sticking out of him may have been one of the most difficult things I had ever had to process, but the relief my mother and I felt when we knew he had made it through vastly overshadowed everything.

Now, just nearly half a week after surgery, he is doing fantastic. He's out of the ICU and back into the RSCCU Unit with significantly fewer tubes and IVs sticking out of him. He's walking off of oxygen and maintaining amazing O2 levels. I'm so proud of my father for making it through surgery and progressing so quickly. My family and I are incredibly grateful to the amazing surgeons, doctors, and nurses at the University of Iowa Hospital for taking such amazing care of my father, Mike.

However, most importantly, we are all incredibly and eternally grateful to the donor and their family (whom we do not know the identities of yet and may potentially not ever obtain that information). It is thanks to the selflessness of your family member that my father can continue to live and no longer suffer while taking back his quality of life. For that, you will always have my family's eternal gratitude.

With all of that being said, the purpose of this GoFundMe is simply to raise the money needed to pay for lodging for the month that my father, Mike, and I will have to stay in Iowa City after he is released from the hospital in order to be close for appointments, tests, and in the event of potential complications post-release. We are hoping to stay in an Airbnb in order to provide him the comfort of a more home-like environment as well as in order to use facilities such as a kitchen for the purpose of cooking meals as opposed to ordering food (which adds up in cost incredibly quickly). Any funds potentially raised after the fact would be used for things such as transportation and parking along with other necessities such as groceries.

Any little bit helps, and our family would be exceptionally grateful for anything that you may be able to spare.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our GoFundMe and read about our family's journey.

Yours Truly,

Mike, Kris, and Austin Anderson.