Double Lung Transplant Patient Marks One-Year Recovery, Off Oxygen And Hiking Again After Scleroderma, Temple Health Performed Surgery

Miracle Turnaround After double lung transplant Gives Local Man New Breath Of Life

USA: A man from Arnold, Anne Arundel County, is marking the first anniversary of a double lung transplantation that reversed a dire prognosis and restored his ability to breathe and live without constant oxygen support. John Kelly, who suffered progressive scleroderma that began decades earlier and ultimately attacked his lungs, required continuous oxygen and faced a narrow timeline without a transplant.

Kelly’s Maryland-based physicians referred him to Temple Health after they were unable to proceed with the surgery. At Temple, transplant specialists including Dr. Cartik Shenoi and a colleague evaluated him as a candidate because of advancing lung disease and worsening pulmonary hypertension. He was placed on the national lung transplant list and received donor lungs about a month later, a rapid turnaround in a process that can often take much longer.

Medical follow-up and rehabilitation have been central to Kelly’s recovery. Clinicians note that one-year survival after double lung transplantation is around 90% nationwide, and Kelly’s progress tracked with that encouraging statistic. Over months of rehab he disconnected from 24/7 oxygen, regained stamina, and no longer experienced the severe shortness of breath and coughing that had constrained him.

The transplant has allowed him to return to everyday activities that once seemed out of reach: hiking, playing sports, and even returning to holiday preparations with family. He celebrated the anniversary of his transplant with a renewed sense of possibility and now heads into a scheduled one-year follow-up appointment this week as part of ongoing post-transplant care and monitoring.

Video originally published on 2026-02-24 13:49:51