Stephen Tsai: Sportscaster Bobby Curran buoyed by support
Dec. 13—There are days when the pain, on a scale from 1 to 10, is at bullet-biting.
There are days when the pain, on a scale from 1 to 10, is at bullet-biting.
These days, the routine is, with chin on chest, to practice hard swallowing.
But with each deep breath, sportscaster Bobby Curran is grateful.
"How can you not feel good when so many people are rooting for you ?" said Curran, 67, who underwent a life-saving, double-lung transplant on Nov. 17 in Phoenix.
It has been a week since Curran was released from St. Joseph's Hospital &Medical Center. He is staying in a rented two-story house a few miles from the hospital's rehabilitation unit where he undergoes "clinics "—testing and treatment—four times a week. Two friends from New York are serving as 24-hour caregivers, helping infuse the 20 medications a day into his feeding tube, with his wife and elder son set to take turns after that.
Curran has been awash in emotion from the texts, emails and calls from Hawaii and across the country. University of Hawaii basketball coach Eran Ganot has been a regular texter. Last week, UH athletic director David Matlin, between meetings on the mainland, spent two hours talking story at Curran's rental.
Norman Nakanishi, a pastor who holds volunteer sermons for UH players, has been leading a prayer group for Curran at Pearlside Church.
"I wasn't initially a very religious person, but some of the things that are happening here, you have to see a heavenly hand in it, " Curran said. "I don't think this could have happened else-wise."
Earlier this year, Curran became friends with Bob Kessner, who also had undergone a lung transplant at St. Joseph's. Kessner explained his experience with the surgery and what to expect in the aftermath. Kessner was scheduled to attend a fund-raising event in Phoenix a day ahead of Curran's surgery. "The night before the surgery, I hadn't heard from him, " Curran said.
As Curran regained consciousness a few days after the surgery, he remembered feeling a sense of calmness. Later, Curran had learned, Kessner "had come into ICU when they took me out of surgery and stayed by the bedside and held my hand. He'd been through this whole thing, and he wanted to help me."
It was in June when Curran, who quit a smoking habit several years ago, was told he needed a double-lung transplant to treat an aggressive stage of emphysema. Doctors recommended Curran as a candidate at St. Joseph's, which performed 120 lung transplants in 2021. During the application process, which resulted in several rejections, Curran was told that without the transplant, his life expectancy probably would not exceed this Christmas.
The day ahead of when a 30-person committee would review his application, Curran met with a top St. Joseph's doctor. There were thresholds and data, and only one of three applicants is approved, but the doctor asked Curran : tell me your story. The next day, Curran was approved as the fortunate one-third.
Curran spent weeks of evaluations and testing before a donor was found. Recipients are not told about a donor's background, but the presumption is it is person younger than 40. "According to all doctors, surgery went really well, " Curran said.
Curran passed two markers : his body accepted the two lungs and they fit his chest cavity.
Medications and "food " are administered through one of the three tubes inserted into his abdomen. He has progressed to being allowed ice chips and four ounces of pureed snacks four times a day. Because of the risk of chewed food going down the "wrong pipe, " which can cause aspiration, Curran is practicing hard-swallowing techniques. If he passes a swallowing test either this Friday or next week, the food tube can be removed and he can expand his menu and take medication orally.
There always is the risk his condition can turn, for no apparent reason, and that he will need some anti-rejection and anti-infection medicines for life. But he remains hopeful in his continued progress. The five-year survival rate is 54 %, although updated data could increase the projection to 58 %. There are more recipients who have lived 10 post-surgery years and, even, 15.
"If I get 10 extra years, I'll be dancing on clouds, " Curran said.
The timeline used to be a year in which recipients stayed in the area after surgery. But several have been able to move home after six months. Curran's goal is to be able to attend his younger son's high school graduation in May. His older son is a sophomore at UH. His wife Jo has balanced taking care of their sons, serving as first vice president of a commercial real estate company, and assisting Curran.
"It's been really hard on her, " Curran said. "She's special. ... What I'm really trying to do now is give my wife a few years to take the pack off and rest easy, and to get my boys to the next level in their lives. That's my goal."
