Bruce Cohen
Lung Recipient
“There was a moment, not long ago, when breathing was something I had to fight for. Not the easy, unconscious breath that most people take for granted the moment they wake up in the morning. I mean a desperate, clawing, exhausting kind of breath. The kind that reminds you with every inhale that your body is losing a war you did not start” shared lung recipient, Bruce Cohen.
“I was diagnosed with a lung disease that slowly, methodically stole my air. I watched the life I had known shrink. Simple things like walking to the mailbox, laughing too hard and sleeping through the night became mountains I could no longer climb. I leaned on oxygen tanks. I leaned on my faith. I leaned on my wife Lori, the woman who stood beside me through every frightening diagnosis, every sleepless night, every moment I wondered if I would see another morning. She never flinched. She never left. She simply loved me forward.
Then the call came.
That call changed everything. Somewhere, a family was walking through the worst night of their lives. Somewhere, in the middle of their unbearable grief, they made a decision so generous, so profoundly selfless, that I cannot speak of it even now without tears filling my eyes. They said yes. They said yes to giving a stranger the one thing no doctor, no medicine, no amount of willpower could give me.
They gave me a second chance at life.
Recovery was not a movie montage. It was hard. It was painful and slow and humbling in ways I never expected. There were days I questioned everything. There were moments I wanted to quit. But I have always been a fighter. I believe, deep in the marrow of my bones, that God kept me here for a reason. Not just to breathe, but to tell this story. To look people in the eye and say, your decision to register as an organ donor does not just save a life. It restores one. It resurrects one.
Today I serve as a volunteer with We Are Sharing Hope SC, and I carry my donor’s gift into every room I walk into. I speak. I advocate. I mentor other transplant recipients and donor families. I want to be that bridge between the grief and the grace. I want to honor the family who gave everything by giving everything I have in return.
If you are reading this and you have not yet registered as an organ donor, I am asking you, heart to heart, to take that step today. Not for me, but for the person right now who is waiting by the phone, running out of time, fighting for one more breath. Be the call that changes everything for them.
You have that power. I know, because someone used it for me.”
