Hello everyone.

My father, Brian Desmarais, has COPD with End Stage Emphysema. Two years ago, he underwent a double lung reduction, and things have progressively worsened over the past year. In the fall, we have been doing tests and evaluations at Miami Transplant Institute, and he was denied for a double lung transplant. In the spring this summer he has been on oxygen full time. Recently, we went up to the VA & UW hospital and repeated the tests/evaluations for a week. This week, we received the best outcome we could hope for. He finally got accepted for a double lung transplant.

Days before his birthday, we got this result, and as he said, “This is the best birthday gift I could receive.” We are truly blessed and grateful. With that being said, we hope this surgery goes smoothly and will give him a better quality of life.

My father is not one to ask for help, but it would be greatly appreciated due to unforeseen costs such as travel, lodging, and so forth. We will use these funds to help lighten the burden of this upcoming journey. We will be relocating to Wisconsin at the beginning of September for up to a year to begin this process.

If you could share this it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.