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Benefit to help local man with transplant expenses

Pictured with his family, Brian “Bibby” McCoy (front row, third from left) underwent a double-lung transplant in March. A benefit to assist him and his family with expenses related to the procedure will be held at the Cottage Event Center, in Roanoke.
Pictured with his family, Brian “Bibby” McCoy (front row, third from left) underwent a double-lung transplant in March. A benefit to assist him and his family with expenses related to the procedure will be held at the Cottage Event Center, in Roanoke.

Bob Marley has been an important part of Brian "Bibby" McCoy's support group, following a double-lung transplant in March.

T-shirts worn by McCoy's friends and family have a quote from the singer printed on the back: "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."

That was the situation McCoy, 42, found himself in earlier this year. McCoy has had epilepsy ever since he suffered a concussion playing football in high school that damaged his brain stem. Two years ago, his health care providers put him on a different medication and it ended up having a damaging effect on his lungs.

"The medication caused a reaction, an allergic reaction, and caused pulmonary fibrosis in my lungs," McCoy explains. "So, basically, my lungs were crystallizing and it took just under two years for that to transpire."

McCoy wound up in Ann Arbor, MI, at the University of Michigan's University Hospital, which contains one of the largest transplant centers in the nation.

Due to the seriousness of his condition, McCoy spent just five days waiting on the transplant list.

"I was put on a machine called an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine and when they put me on that machine, what it does is it takes the unoxygenated blood out of your system, oxygenates it and then puts it back into your system," he shares. "And when I went on that machine I went to number one on the lung transplant list in three states."

Since his condition deteriorated rapidly, McCoy didn't have time to do some of the things his doctors had wanted him to do prior to receiving the transplant, such as losing weight and gradually ceasing use of the steroids they had him on. As a result, his recovery was more challenging.

"I was unconscious for about the first five weeks after the transplant," McCoy says. "Most people are up and around, they say, after even a few days with a lung transplant and are usually home a couple weeks, three to four weeks after, and I was there for eight weeks."

Today, McCoy goes to pulmonary therapy three times a week and sees the range of things he can do increasing. He says he's also getting around a lot better than he was.

"I no longer have to carry oxygen with me at all times, which is a big thing," he admits. "I didn't like hauling tanks around all the time."

McCoy's family and friends have been with him every step of the way, often donning their support group T-shirts, which feature the McCoy family crest that dates back to, McCoy speculates, 17th Century Scotland, and a Celtic cross resembling the one McCoy has tattooed on his side.
McCoy is especially grateful for the support he's received from his wife, Heidi.

"She's done so much," he says. "Like running the house without me and doing everything on her own."

Mother-in-lawn Helen Goble has also been a big help, McCoy says, "going out and contacting every business in the county, trying to get donations."

Every little bit helps, particularly as the costs associated with trekking up to Ann Arbor every three weeks for checkups at University Hospital add up, McCoy says.

Friends Alexander and Natalie Burgess, who cater events at Roanoke's Cottage Event Center through their business, 1024 Catering Company, shared McCoy's story with the center's co-owner, Jim Amstutz, who was moved to offer the center, as well as a band, bartenders and security, at no charge so a benefit could be held.

The benefit will take place Friday, Aug. 8, from 6 p.m. to midnight. Freewill donations will be accepted for the night's meal, which will be prepared by 1024 Catering Company. The benefit will feature a cash bar, an hourly silent auction and raffle items, a show by magician Magic Jerry and live music from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Indiana Organ Procurement Organization (IOPO) will have a table at the event and McCoy encourages attendees who aren't already organ donors to sign up.

"The person that saved my life also saved seven others that night," he shares. "So, the organs that they donated saved eight people total in just one day.
Even if people think that they're not eligible... pretty much anything that you can think of, they can recycle."

While McCoy currently has no knowledge of his donor's identity, he says he can write a letter to their family after one year and Donate Life, an organization that promotes organ donorship, will forward it to them.

For now, McCoy and his loved ones are simply grateful to that person for their choice to become an organ donor and they're looking to pay it forward.

"I have six children and I believe four of them have signed up now to be organ donors since this has happened and two of them, even my 13-year-old has said as soon as she can donate, she's going to sign up to be an organ donor," McCoy says. "It's had a pretty big impact on the whole family."

To learn more about IOPO, visit www.iopo.org.

The Cottage Event Center is located at 966 Locust Drive, Roanoke.

Complete caption: Pictured with his family, Brian “Bibby” McCoy (front row, third from left) underwent a double-lung transplant in March. A benefit to assist him and his family with expenses related to the procedure will be held at the Cottage Event Center, in Roanoke, on Friday, Aug. 8, from 6 p.m. to midnight.