IOPO®: Indiana Organ Procurement Organization, Inc.

Donation Stories

Profiles of recipients of the gift of life and the donors who saved them.

Jose Garcia Story Photo

Jose Garcia

Paving the Way for Others

Jose Garcia was the first person in the world to receive a double lung/pancreas transplant. Kids don’t like to be different and while growing up Jose never told his classmates he suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. He loved to work on cars and took auto shop in high school. After graduation he worked full time driving a city bus for three years.

By then, the CF had ravaged his lungs and he went on oxygen around the clock. He had to give up his job and when the disease also affected his pancreas he had to make a life or death decision. A surgeon proposed not just a double lung transplant but a transplant that would also include a new pancreas. It would be a pioneering procedure and there were no guarantees that it would be successful. After considerable deliberation, Jose decided to "go for it" because, he rationalized, "if the new pancreas didn’t work, I could still get insulin." The 12-½ hour surgery was performed in 2006 when Jose was 25.

Jose had a bumpy recovery but soon enjoyed being outside with his nephew and nieces and walked along side them as they rode their bikes, something he thought he’d never be able to do. His brave decision paved the way for two more patients in their 20s to have the same surgery soon afterwards. All three met for the first time about one year after Jose’s history making transplant.