MORE THAN 2,400 ON LIST FOR NEW LUNGS

Cape Girardeau resident Gary Farmer isn't alone in needing a lung transplant. As of July, 2,454 people nationwide were waiting for lung transplants.

"Lungs are by far the hardest organ to recover," said Gary Anderson, who heads up the Mid-America Transplant Services office in Jackson.

The organization serves the region of eastern Missouri, northern Arkansas and southern Illinois.

In 1995, there were 88 lung transplants in the region. Through the first five months of this year, hospitals in the region did 43 lung transplants.

Lung transplants have occurred since the middle-1980s nationwide. But the first successful transplant didn't occur until 1989, Anderson said.

Even now, transplants remain risky.

Worldwide, the survival rate is about 70 percent at one year after a lung transplant and about 50 percent at the four-year mark, according to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Nearly 10 percent of patients die shortly after the operation.

Anderson said securing a set of lungs is difficult partly because they typically fill up with fluids after a person dies.

In addition, the lungs are often damaged when a person dies in traffic accident.

Smoking also damages lungs. "There are a lot of people out there that abuse their organs and the lungs take the biggest hit," said Anderson.

For every 10 donors, only one set of lungs is suitable for transplant, he said.

A patient can't receive just any lung. It must be one that is of the right size and blood type for that patient, Anderson said.

Lungs must be transplanted within three to four hours after the death of the donor.

Anderson said an effort is made to transplant the lungs in the region where the donor died because of the time constraints.

The waiting period varies between regions and hospitals, as a result, he said.