Alphas, Friends & Family

Alpha learns his lesson -- and now teaches it to others

Dan Martini learned a lot from pulmonary rehab classes—so that helped him decide to become a Respiratory Therapist

Dan Martini thought he knew exactly why he was short of breath:

“I was overweight, lazy and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day.”

Dan Martini, graduating as a respiratory therapist

But in 1997, seven years after he quit smoking and after several years of severe asthma and recurring bronchitis, he found out he’d only been half right: He was finally diagnosed with Alpha-1. He had an FEV1 of 27 percent at age 45; his doctor told him a lung transplant was his only hope for survival.

He began “shopping around” for a lung transplant. He applied for the transplant list at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Madison, WI. While awaiting a decision, he changed his behavior. “I exercised, I went to my rehab center and I continued to call the transplant center to check in.”

Martini has worked his way through two pulmonary rehabilitation courses. He says it’s the best way to gain exercise tolerance and build healthy muscle. He even created his own set of exercises.

“If you have problems with your lungs, you should exhale on the exertion – which is the most difficult part of the exercise – and inhale as you come out of it,” he says.

For example, if you are raising your hands over your head, you breathe out as your arms go up, and breathe in as they come back down. Often, you have to start out doing small exercises like this to build tolerance. When he started lifting weights, he used a can of beans. Now he can curl 15 pounds.

“You exercise as much as you can tolerate, for as long as you can tolerate it,” he said. “If you can only do two curls, then do those two curls every day until you can do more. But my best advice is to find something that interests you. If you don’t enjoy doing it, then you’ll find every reason not to.”

For Martini, it’s the stationary bike. Sometimes he pedals seven or eight miles without even knowing it. His secret? Video games. As long as he’s focused on his video games, he isn’t aware of what his feet are doing.

On the morning of Jan 8, 2001, Martini made his routine call to the hospital to find out where he was on the list. “There were some movements, but you’re still only fourth,” the nurse told him. That evening, at dinner with his family, he got The Call: incredibly, four lungs had become available at the same time. He received his new lung the next day. Now, he gets 60% more lung function out of that one lung than he did from both of his damaged lungs combined.

After breathing easily for the first time in years, he decided to go to school and become a respiratory therapist. In 2004, he began taking prerequisite courses at the local community college. Then he transferred to Nebraska Methodist College where he received a degree in Respiratory Care this past July. “I passed my boards in August, and now I’m a Certified Respiratory Therapist,” he said.

He recently won the Morton B. Duggan, Jr. Memorial Education Recognition Award for his outstanding article about Alpha-1. Awarded by The American Respiratory Care Foundation, the “Duggan Award” gives up to $1,000 in memory of Morton B. Duggan, Jr. to its recipients.

This award consists of a certificate of recognition, airfare, one night lodging and registration for the AARC International Respiratory Congress.

Martini believes his experience as a patient helps him motivate others. He’s been in their footsteps and he knows what works. “Anyone who has lung problems should remember that the more you do, the more you can do,” he said. “It’s like they always say – use it, or lose it. It’s just that simple.”