Sarah Kamasz has always made fun of people who cry at airports.

But, when the Bend woman had to say goodbye and leave her husband, Matt Kamasz, in San Francisco recently, she became one of the blubbering passengers she had laughed at in the past. Sobbing her way through security, she said, she couldn’t even find the words to tell him she loved him.

In her mind, she said, she knew several scenarios could play out before the couple is reunited. Matt, 33, suffers from a rare lung disorder known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The disease causes scarring of the air sacks in his lungs, making the organs stiffen and reducing his ability to breathe.

The former Deschutes County Sheriff’s Deputy is now on full-time disability leave. He needs a double lung transplant to save his life and he’s waiting in San Francisco to be put on the transplant list, which could happen any day.

If Kamasz receives new lungs, his doctors believe the disease will be gone and the new lungs will be safe from damage by his lung disorder.

The next time Sarah sees him, Matt could be prepped for surgery. He could be in the recovery room after the surgery. Or, he could still be waiting for the all-important, life-changing phone call.

”Saying goodbye was very hard,” Sarah said. ”It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

Through the hoops ?255-135?LF

Matt and Sarah drove to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center through a snowstorm on March 22. Matt had a series of physical tests that week including a chest X-ray, a bone density test and blood work to determine if he is healthy enough to undergo the transplant.

His case has already been reviewed and accepted by a transplant panel, Sarah said, but they requested that he repeat a test he had taken a few months ago in Seattle. Once that test is complete and the results are in, Matt said, he should be put on the list right away.

”They said, ‘It’s not a matter of if you get on the list, but when,’” Matt said in a phone interview from California last week. ”I just want to get this over with so I can get back home. There is a little bit of frustration. I should have known better than to expect that I would get done after three tests and be on the list.”

While in San Francisco, he and Sarah also met with a social worker who evaluated his emotional stability and his social structure. He’ll need support after the surgery to deal with both the physical recovery and the conflicting emotions that go along with any transplant.

Part of that support system, Sarah said, is a new friend named Jerry Killens. The La Pine resident had a double lung transplant about nine months ago and has become a mentor and friend to Matt, giving him advice, equipment to aid in using his oxygen and a shoulder to lean on.

”I try to keep his courage up,” Killens said. ”He’s a strong young man. If he’s gets a good set of lungs, there’s nothing to stop him.”

Killens said he knows that waiting for a new set of lungs, while struggling to breathe and being unable to do the most basic activities is difficult.

”It’s hell,” he said. ”I wanted to give up, curl up and say the heck with it, I’m tired of fighting.”

Now that he has a new set of lungs, he knows the fight was worth it. He hopes, by sharing his experiences, Matt will be inspired to continue going through the rigorous tests and seemingly endless hoops that lead, ultimately, to a lung transplant.

Knowing what it’s like ?255-135?LF

When Killens and his fiance Denise Ronek first read about Matt’s story in The Bulletin, the circumstances hit home.

At age 39, Killens was diagnosed with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder that causes emphysema.

That was in 1997 and at the time, he said, lung transplants were still fairly new. The University of Washington Medical Center, where Killens eventually had his surgery, started performing them in 1991. But at the time of his diagnosis, Killens said, his Portland physician told him to wait before seeking a transplant because the technology would only improve.

It wasn’t until this time last year, when he could no longer walk 10 feet without gasping for air, that he was first put on the transplant list.

”They listed me on April 28th,” Killens said. ”The following day I woke up and I had a cold. They took me off (the list) for three weeks.”

The second time he was listed, he had another medical problem and had to wait again. Finally, on June 19, 2004 he was officially placed on the transplant list.

Nine days later, at 5:10 a.m., his phone rang.”The nurse asked me how soon I could be there,” Killens recalled. ”All she could tell me was ,’You better hurry. You better hurry.’”

Several hours later, his lungs had been removed and replaced by a set of healthy lungs from a 25-year-old man. Killens wrote to donor’s family in October and just received a response from his aunt last week. He’s hoping to meet her soon, although he doesn’t yet know what he’ll say.

Thank you, he said, isn’t nearly enough.

”It’s awesome. I just can’t believe it. It’s hard to describe,” Killens said. ”I walk outside every morning and take a breath of fresh air. I got an amazing gift, and I try to take care of it.”

Living a full life ?255-135?LF

Nine months after the surgery, Killens feels great.

He is still limited in some of his activities and will never return to construction work – his former trade – because of the dust. He’ll have to learn a new job skill when his doctors agree he’s ready to go back to work.

Because the lung transplant requires surgeons to crack the sternum and open up the chest like a crab shell, Killens said, the recovery is extensive. He still drives to Portland frequently for blood tests and he takes 15 pills a day.

”They cut you from armpit to armpit, underneath your pects,” Killens said. ”I still have to watch my peas and q’s because of my sternum. If it was up to me, I’d be out riding dirt bikes and everything else.”

Instead, most of his time is now dedicated to helping Matt and Sarah. He’s part of a group of people in La Pine organizing a garage sale to raise money for the couple.

Matt’s health insurance – he’s covered under Sarah’s insurance as a teacher at Lava Ridge Elementary – will cover most of the medical expenses. But it won’t pay for airplane tickets for Sarah to visit him. It won’t help cover the mortgage on their house while he is out of work. And it won’t pay for hotel rooms during his surgery.

He’s staying with his sister and her family in San Jose for now, but will need to be closer to the hospital in the first few months after surgery.

The garage sale is scheduled for April 16 at the Big Buck Auction Building in La Pine. Killens said he’s also hoping to look for monetary donations after the sale is over and encouraged people who want to donate to visit U.S. Bank where the Matt Kamasz Lungs for Life fund has been established.

”I’m spending all my energy right now towards Matt,” Killens said. ”I think about that guy every day and I know what he’s going through.”

When Matt actually has the surgery, Killens hopes to go to San Francisco and help him through the emotional roller coaster that follows. Killens said he thought about the donor family a lot in the days after his own surgery. He would be hit by waves of emotion that made it difficult for him to leave his hospital room because he couldn’t stop crying.

The reality, he said, is that someone has to die in order for Matt to live.

”I wish I could be there 24-seven to help him, I really do,” Killens said. ”It’s like a comfort blanket. He’s looking at me in a way, and is seeing how well I’m doing. It was seven months after my surgery when I first met him.”

”He said, ‘God you’re doing so good.’ ”

”I said, ‘There is nothing stopping you either partner. Do what the doctor says and get it done.’ ”

Kayley Mendenhall can be reached at 541-383-0375 or at kmendenhall@bendbulletin.com.