New Lungs For Tony

Tony's Story

Our Dad, Tony Velasquez worked for the Air Force and the Army for 30 years and was very healthy after his retirement in December 2010. Our dad never smoked and was very active throughout his life. On May 1, 2012 he was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease known as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. His life went from an extremely active lifestyle to a 100% disabled life condition. We grew up seeing him do projects at our house, pull trees from the front yard and play sports with us. His grandkids experienced a healthy grandpa for the first few years of their lives. Now their grandpa does not have enough energy to lift them up and kiss them.

This disease has detrimentally changed his life style and has tremendously impacted our lives as well. Our dad cannot walk to the kitchen table without taking 15 minutes to catch his breath to sit down to eat. During his meal times he has to catch his breath and rest in order to be able to eat. This disease has significantly progressed the last few months and he is on oxygen 24 hours a day. His current lung function is 38% and rapidly declining. Normal people have a lung capacity of 100%.

After 6 months of traveling, seeing different pulmonary specialists and receiving several treatments, the pulmonary doctors concluded that nothing could be done and the only alternative was a lung transplant. On August 15, 2013 he returned to his local doctor. His local doctor was so surprised to see that his health declined so rapidly that she immediately recommended that he leave the city as soon as possible to seek a lung transplant. Our parents left everything behind and went to North Carolina for a lung evaluation hoping to be put on the list for a lung transplant. Our Dad and Mom relocated to North Carolina and met with the University of North Carolina Group Physicians Team. Our Dad underwent a lung transplant evaluation with the hopes of being placed on the lung transplant list. After an extensive evaluation process, the University of North Carolina lung transplantteam approved and recommended our Dad to the lung transplant list. The great news came on September 30, 2013 when the lung transplant physician informed us that our Dad was officially placed on the list for a lung transplant.

Though our father has insurance coverage, his out of pocket expenses are estimated to exceed $200,000. The insurance company and hospital both estimate that this each lung will cost over $1,000,000. Our Dad’s lungs are extremely damaged and he’ll need 2 lungs. This is why we need the help of our Family, Friends and Donors. We have set up this webpage and have a fund raising bank account at Bank of America to accept your thoughtful contributions. We are kindly asking for donations from each and every one of you. Your donation will help us reach our goal of offsetting the cost of this surgery. Please consider an amount to donate and 100% of donations will be used to cover the lung transplant.

We thank you for taking the time to read this message and we are grateful for your thoughts, contributions and prayers!

God Bless You,
Velasquez Family