{"id":87312,"date":"2025-12-09T11:28:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=87312"},"modified":"2026-01-11T14:59:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T21:59:29","slug":"double-lung-transplant-inspires-mission-to-serve-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/double-lung-transplant-inspires-mission-to-serve-others\/","title":{"rendered":"His double lung transplant inspired his commitment to serving others"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><figure id=\"attachment_87352\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87352\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-87352\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/12\/08133604\/PFAC-Profile-1-Hutto-and-Family-at-Wynkoop-web.webp\" alt=\" Dean Hutto with his wife and children, who have provided great support to him after he learned he had interstitial lung disease and needed a double lung transplant. Photo courtesy of Dean Hutto.\" width=\"640\" height=\"455\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87352\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dean Hutto with his wife and children, who have provided great support to him after he learned he had interstitial lung disease and needed a double lung transplant. Photo courtesy of Dean Hutto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One day in September 2014, Dean Hutto was relaxing in downtown Denver with some friends who shared his career interest in consumer electronics and were in town for a trade event.<\/p>\n<p>The scene would have been unremarkable to a casual observer. They couldn\u2019t have known that Hutto\u2019s life was about to change with a phone call.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-callout-box col-xs-12 col-sm-6 right\" style=\"background-color:#dce4e7; color:#2e3b44;\">\n<h3><strong>Would you like to learn more about serving on a patient and family advisory council? <\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Are you a patient or a family member, and you\u2019d like to share your insights?<\/li>\n<li>Please consider joining a patient and family advisory council.<\/li>\n<li>Connect with us at PFAC@uchealth.org if you\u2019d like to join the council in your region. <\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few folks might have noticed Hutto\u2019s oxygen tank, a necessity because he suffered from <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/diseases-conditions\/interstitial-lung-disease-ild\/\">interstitial lung disease<\/a> (ILD), which had scarred and inflamed his lungs so severely that he needed to transplant both of them. He\u2019d been on the waiting list for nearly two years when his phone rang, with a voice on the other end telling him that the team at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/locations\/uchealth-transplant-services-anschutz\/\">Transplant Center<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/locations\/uchealth-university-of-colorado-hospital-uch\/\">UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital<\/a> had found a donor.<\/p>\n<p>In short order, Dr. Michael Weyant, then a lung transplant surgeon at the hospital, replaced Hutto\u2019s diseased lungs with new, healthy ones. Hutto became another recipient of what he calls \u201can incredible gift.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A determination to serve<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hutto forges ahead today, grateful for the 11 years and counting that his transplanted lungs have given him but also determined to help others who are facing the fears he felt waiting for a transplant. He also strives to represent all patients navigating a complicated health care and hospital system.<\/p>\n<p>Hutto\u2019s ILD forced an end to his 35-year career in consumer electronics in 2013, but he has filled the void with service. He is a <a href=\"https:\/\/lungtransplantfoundation.org\/mentorship\/\">mentor<\/a> for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lungtransplantfoundation.org\/\">Lung Transplant Foundation<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donoralliance.org\/get-involved\/volunteer\/\">volunteer advocate<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donoralliance.org\/\">Donor Alliance<\/a> and co-chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Council at University of Colorado Hospital, whose mission he describes as \u201crepresenting the voice of patients\u201d when leadership makes policy decisions that affect them. He joins other patients, family members and hospital staff in that work.<\/p>\n<p>Hutto\u2019s motivation in undertaking this work is simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter my last day of work, I looked for opportunities to help people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The loneliness imposed by his disease and the wait for a transplant \u2013 despite the unwavering support of his wife, Karyn, and their three sons \u2013 drove him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t have anyone to talk to. You are on your own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He was determined to help lessen those feelings of isolation in others, he said.<\/p>\n<p>A big part of that work is telling others his story. It\u2019s a complicated one in which bad luck turned out to be good luck. At the same time, good luck often came at a heavy price.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A shocking diagnosis of ILD<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hutto\u2019s health challenges began during a 2010 softball game in Highlands Ranch, his home since moving to Colorado from California in 1997. A sudden pain turned out to be a torn Achilles tendon. He had surgery to repair the injury, then began physical rehabilitation that started with massage. As the rehab intensified, Hutto said he was surprised at how much trouble he had breathing. He was just 51 and in reasonably good shape.<\/p>\n<p>His therapists had the same thought. \u201cThey said, \u2018you shouldn\u2019t be to the point that you can\u2019t catch your breath,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Hutto thought the culprit might be severe seasonal allergies, but a visit to an allergist darkened the picture. After a spirometry test to measure Hutto\u2019s lung capacity, the allergist suggested that he get a chest X-ray. A few minutes after he got home, the allergist called with worrying news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said, \u2018I don\u2019t like what I see here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The therapist advised Hutto to have his primary care physician give him a referral to a pulmonologist, a specialist in lung and respiratory problems.<\/p>\n<p>The lung specialist used a pulse oximeter to measure the oxygen in Hutto\u2019s blood and his heart rate and determined that he needed supplemental oxygen and steroids to control the inflammation in his lungs. In September 2011, with his health continuing to decline while his need for oxygen increased, he had a lung biopsy that revealed his ILD, a condition he\u2019d never heard of.<\/p>\n<p>Hutto was understandably shocked. He had noticed no prior symptoms of this serious threat to his breathing \u2014 and his life.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The long journey back from interstitial lung disease<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In simple terms, the diagnosis meant his lungs were failing quickly. Fortunately, his pulmonologist had studied under Dr. Martin Zamora, then the medical director of the Lung Transplant Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He called Zamora, who reviewed Hutto\u2019s case and told him that he was a good candidate for a double lung transplant.<\/p>\n<p>With that, \u201cthings went in fast motion,\u201d Hutto recalled. Within two weeks, he began a battery of tests to ensure that his body could handle transplant surgery. He was notified the day before Thanksgiving in 2012 that he\u2019d been placed on the transplant waiting list.<\/p>\n<p>Hutto did not sit by idly. He began work with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/services\/respiratory-lung-care\/pulmonary-rehabilitation\/\">Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program<\/a> at the University of Colorado Hospital to strengthen his body for the rigors of surgery. He shed 30 pounds while determinedly laboring through the rehab regimen. He eventually needed a mask that delivered up to 18 liters of oxygen while he exercised.<\/p>\n<p>Near the end of 2012, a literal and figurative positive note sounded in his life. He joined the \u201cHarmonicats,\u201d a group of pulmonary rehabilitation patients who met weekly to strengthen their diaphragms by playing musical numbers on their harmonicas. Thirteen years later, his commitment to the group remains steadfast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are as much a support group as a musical group,\u201d Hutto said.<\/p>\n<p>Karyn and their three young sons also anchored him with their words and actions. One night, he enlisted them in a challenge at Red Rocks Amphitheater \u2014 an unlikely site for a visit from a double-lung transplant candidate. But Hutto did exactly that, gathering them to attend a Zac Brown Band concert. They all wore backpacks with oxygen tanks and climbed the steep steps to the 40<sup>th<\/sup> row of the venue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me a tank of oxygen to go to the restroom,\u201d Hutto recalled.<\/p>\n<p>But he\u2019d proven that his lung disease couldn\u2019t deter him from doing the things he loved with those he loved \u2013 and from giving himself the best chance to be around for them for the long haul.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The support needed for the transplant <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Many helping hands from his community also supported him after he received the call that the hospital had matched him with a donor. His oldest son, then a senior who played soccer at Mountain Vista High School, stepped on the field with his teammates, all of them wearing \u201c#DH\u201d written in black marker on their wrists. The cross-country, football and girls\u2019 softball teams followed suit.<\/p>\n<p>Hutto is keenly aware of and grateful for the many expressions of emotional and financial support he received during his ordeal. It\u2019s one reason he wants to serve others facing the same struggles. In addition, his own experiences teach him that health challenges do not end after a transplant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing into it, the team makes clear that transplant is not a cure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He endured organ rejection problems three times during the first post-transplant year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was sick all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hutto vividly remembers receiving massive doses of steroids that often left him curled up in the room with his home theater as he struggled through sleepless nights with a disrupted appetite and confused thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>A decade later, his health has stabilized, but he still deals with \u201cgood days and bad days. There is no normal.\u201d He also manages a regimen of medications and supplements that take up \u201ctwo packed shelves\u201d in a cabinet in his home office.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A commitment to serve others<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hutto navigates the sometimes bumpy post-transplant road with a sense of gratitude for his life and a determination to make it meaningful. He was spared by a donor he can never personally thank. He acknowledges it by lending his assistance to others.<\/p>\n<p>A big part of that commitment is his work with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/give-to-uchealth\/patient-family-centered-care-pfcc\/\">Patient and Family Advisory Council<\/a>, which began when he met Bella Wong, also the recipient of a double lung transplant at University of Colorado Hospital. Wong, an advisory council member, and Monique McCollum, staff co-chair for the council and manager of health literacy at the hospital, took Hutto to lunch and explained the council&#8217;s purpose and mission.<\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t require much convincing. He is dedicated to \u201chighlighting the patient voice\u201d in the day-to-day operations of the hospital. He points to three key goals for the Patient and Family Advisory Council: recruiting new staff, patient and caregiver members; contributing positively to the patient experience; and strengthening the council\u2019s visibility and partnership with the organization.<\/p>\n<p>He is also a member of the Non-Beneficial Intervention Committee, which addresses tough conversations, such as those that arise when a patient\u2019s loved ones don\u2019t agree with decisions made by medical staff. He also participates in unit rounding, during which he and other volunteers support staff by delivering food to them, while also helping to acquaint them with the work of the Patient and Family Advisory Council.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, he spreads his message and offers his services to people he meets, not only through the Lung Transplant Foundation and Donor Alliance, but also at forums like the American Lung Association\u2019s Annual Gala, where in 2023, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BYPlvkTsb4k\">shared the story<\/a> of his battle with ILD and his post-transplant life.<\/p>\n<p>While he often looks back on those experiences, Hutto doesn\u2019t dwell on the reasons for the difficult path he was forced to follow in 2010. He sees instead many chances to help others in similar situations look forward to a brighter day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to look in the rearview mirror, trying to figure out what caused all this,\u201d he said. \u201cI concentrate on what I can affect today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One day in September 2014, Dean Hutto was relaxing in downtown Denver with some friends who shared his career interest in consumer electronics and were in town for a trade event. The scene would have been unremarkable to a casual observer. They couldn\u2019t have known that Hutto\u2019s life was about to change with a phone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2143,"featured_media":87352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3357,4501,39],"class_list":["post-87312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-lung-and-respiratory-care-pulmonology","tag-lung-transplants","tag-transplant-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>His double lung transplant inspired commitment to serving others - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dean Hutto has found a new calling after an unexpected ordeal with lung disease. 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