Shawn M. Graves has been fighting fires for nearly 50 years.
Graves kicked off his firefighting career in May 1975, working in Salt Lake City, Utah. After 30 years of service, Graves was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), brought on by decades of firefighting and smoking cigarettes.
Graves’ COPD quickly worsened, leading him to retire in 2010—just three years after his diagnosis.
“I retired because I was starting to notice I couldn’t breathe anymore,” he said. “I was afraid I was going to hurt someone, so I knew it was time.”
However, Graves’ firefighting career continues. A year before retiring, Graves joined NASCAR as a member of the pit firefighting crew. Twice a year, Graves travels to Las Vegas to work at a weekend race series. Since joining NASCAR in 2009, Graves has only missed three out of 30 races. Two of those three times were due to breathing issues related to his COPD.
Graves’ quality of life continued to decline, and he was on oxygen 24 hours a day. In late 2015, Graves started the process to assess his eligibility for a double lung transplant. At one point along the way, Graves thought he had lost his chance to qualify for the transplant list.
“I had trouble getting on the list because I failed one of the nicotine tests,” he said. “They weren’t going to give me a transplant because of that, but then I worked so hard and was clean for so long that they put me on the list.”
After more than six months of testing and assessments, Graves got the good news: he was on the transplant list. The approval didn’t come a moment too soon. His health was declining, and he was on 25 liters of oxygen.
“It was horrible,” he said. Three months later, Graves got the phone call.
“They called me and said, ‘It’s a wonderful day for a transplant'...I jumped in my Corvette and went Mach 1 all the way from Herriman. I was lucky I didn’t get a ticket.”
On June 29, 2016, Graves received a double lung transplant at University of Utah Hospital.
“I had the greatest surgeon ever—Craig Selzman,” he said. “All of the transplant doctors and nurses have been wonderful to me. The team is just amazing.”
University of Utah Health is the only resource for lung transplants in the Mountain West. Across the United States, over 4,500 patients are on the waitlist for new lungs. The transplant team at U of U Health performs roughly 40 lung transplants each year for patients in Utah and beyond.
“Our lung transplant program is a true distinguishing feature of U of U Health,” said Craig Selzman, MD, chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at University of Utah Health. “We have a very deep team of people that deal with patients who have very advanced lung disease, and it’s a point of pride that we can offer this service—not only in the state of Utah but across the Mountain West.”
Selzman is the Dr. Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel W. Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair and a member of the lung transplant team. This multidisciplinary group includes pulmonary medicine doctors, transplant surgeons, transplant coordinators, pharmacists, social workers, registered dietitians, financial specialists, and pulmonary rehabilitation therapists.
It was this strong care team that helped Graves before, during, and after his surgery. But for Graves, the most important member of his care team is his wife, Linda.
“To get a transplant, you have to have someone who can be with you 24/7 for the first six or seven months after the surgery,” Graves said. “My wife did it for me, and I tell you what, it’s a big job.”
Two days after Graves’ transplant, he was still on one liter of oxygen.
“Dr. Selzman came to visit, and he took me off oxygen completely,” Graves said. “It kind of freaked me out at first, because I didn’t think I was going to be all right.” He hasn’t been on oxygen since.
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Your health may be bad, but they can help you. Not everyone does well, and there’s no guarantee. But if you are willing to put in the work, the outcome can be very good.”
As for his care team, Graves can’t say enough good things.
“Those people are the reason I’m alive—I know that,” he said. “The lung transplant program is amazing, and all I can say is if they ever need anything from me, I’m there.”
