Double-lung transplant recipient rides in STP bicycle trek

Ken Price at the STP.

Almost five years to the day after receiving a double-lung transplant at UW Medical Center, cystic fibrosis patient Ken Price completed the annual Seattle-to-Portland bicycle trek in one day last month.

This was the fifth straight year that Price, 35, has ridden in the 200-mile annual event. The first time was just a year after his transplant. Most people take two days to complete the trip, but Price joined the elite riders in the field by going the whole distance in one day.

“I love biking,” says Price, “and I got fit so quickly after getting my new lungs that I was able to do the ride just a year after my transplant.” In fact, he was out hitting a tennis ball just four weeks after the transplant, which took place on July 7, 1993.

Price, a Boeing aerospace engineer who lives in Issaquah, is a co-founder of Team Spare Parts, a group of transplantees who make the STP an annual event. This year, about 10 recipients of donor organs rode to Portland.

Price says the lung transplant has essentially cured him of the lung problems caused by cystic fibrosis, although he will continue to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life. He sees his pulmonologist, Dr. Moira Aitken, associate professor of medicine at UW Medical Center, two or three times a year.

“The advent of lung transplantation has further opened the door for increased life expectancy with cystic fibrosis, as evidenced by Ken’s fifth transplant birthday,” said Aitken. “However, only about 150 CF patients receive transplants each year, and there is a continuing need for more donor organs.”

Price is grateful for his new lease on life, and promotes organ donation at every opportunity.

“The fact that I, along with many other transplant recipients, rode my bike to Portland is evidence that transplants work,” he said. “We are all examples of active, productive people who have been given back to our families and friends. Life is a blessing, for which we thank the generosity of our donor families and the skill of our doctors and their staffs for making it possible.”

UW Medical Center began doing lung transplants in 1992. As of the end of June, a total of 81 patients had been transplanted, including 31 who received double-lung transplants. The double-lung transplants include 14 patients with cystic fibrosis. ¶