Leopold’s Martin Mileham was dying, a lung transplant brought him back

Martin Mileham was under no illusions when he was diagnosed a rare disease that had killed his mother just years earlier.

Martin Mileham. Picture: Alan Barber

  

  Leopold’s Martin Mileham was just 36 when he was diagnosed with a rare disease that left him at death’s door and in need of a new set of lungs.

Mr Mileham was under no illusions when he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in 1995 — it was the same illness that had killed his mother just years earlier.

The aggressive condition started as a dry cough, but within three years left him stuck in an armchair on oxygen, watching TV all day.

He said the highlight of each day had been cleaning his teeth.

Then in 1998 he received a double-lung transplant.

“I was so close to the absolute tipping point of simply being too ill to have survived the surgery,” he said.

“I had a few weeks (left), at the most.”

He said having been close to death, he received the transplant in the nick of time.

“It was a complete lottery, and I was lucky enough to win that one,” he said.

One organ donor can save the lives of up to seven people and change the lives of many more through eye and tissue donation.  

Mr Mileham said coming out of the operating theatre, he felt an instant difference.

“It was an extraordinary feeling,” the retiree said.

“Before the transplant I had had so little oxygen in my body, everything had been a struggle.

“Afterwards, in ICU, they said to me, ‘take a breath,’ and for the first time in over a year I was actually able to fill my entire chest cavity with air without coughing.

“I could say more than three words at a time without getting out of breath.”

Now 65, Mr Mileham is 26 years post-transplant, and even managed to make it through the pandemic without contracting COVID-19.

On Sunday November 17 Mr Mileham said he would be celebrating Thank You Day – a national day to acknowledge the generosity of organ and tissue donors, and their families.

“Just saying thank you to these people never really feels enough,” he said.

“But one gives a thought to all those who have donated, and the families of those donors too.”

In 2023, 513 people became organ donors and saved or transformed the lives of 1396 organ transplant recipients in Australia.  

According to DonateLife Victoria, families are much more likely to allow organ donation when they are aware the donor is registered.

“Make sure everyone knows,” Mr Mileham said.

There are currently around 1800 Australians on the organ waitlist and 14,000 more on dialysis for kidney failure.

People can register to become a donor at www.donatelife.gov.au.

The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology, then edited and approved for publication by an editor.

Originally published as Leopold’s Martin Mileham was dying, a lung transplant brought him back