This Christmas Steve Faber has already received the best present ever…the gift of life.

Last summer Faber received a rare double lung transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. For over a year he had been fighting to breathe, relying on portable oxygen tanks, his lungs deteriorating from COPD, emphysema, and pulmonary fibrosis caused by years of smoking and inhaling fumes from diesel engines while working equipment in the maintenance garage at the Henry County Highway Department where he worked.

His condition worsened with a reaction to a COVID booster shot. By the time he was placed on the National Donor Registry for a double lung transplant on Thursday, July 13, one lung was dead, the other with only two inches of breathing room at the top.

Faber says he was surprised to learn that the average waiting time for a donated organ is now less than 30 days, but that Saturday, two days after he was placed on the donor list…and for a rare set of lungs from the same person…the nurse, whose only job is to transport donated organs, told him they had found a possible donor, but she had to fly to Florida and determine if they were a fit for Faber.

The potential donor was a 35-year-old man, a non-smoker and non-drinker, who had just tragically died in a car crash. Luckily, the lungs were determined to be suitable for transplant into Faber’s chest…but it wasn’t until the lungs got back to Chicago that they realized they were more than suitable.

Faber said he was born with one lung a couple of inches shorter than the other. It turned out one of the donor’s lungs was also shorter than the other, like Faber’s, and on the same side. Faber said the doctors had been prepared to fill the open space below the shorter lung, but that wasn’t necessary.

“It was truly a miracle,” said Faber. “Like it was meant to be.”

Faber said someday he would like to talk to the family of the unidentified donor and tell them how grateful he is for the man’s decision to donate his organs in the event of his death. He said not only did his lungs save his life, but his heart went to someone in New York who needed a transplant, and there may be others who received organs from the Floridian. Faber said his last lung was about to shut down and he would have soon breathed his last if the transplant had not taken place, as it turned out, in the nick of time.

It has been a long haul for Faber with many highs and lows during his ordeal including learning how to breathe again with his new lungs. As the months in rehab and recovery went by following the transplant, Faber said he got discouraged dealing with the medical system and the process of getting his strength back.

In November he underwent surgery again after a wire in his chest which held his sternum together broke and was replaced with a metal plate. It was all taking too long. He just wanted to go home to his wife, Peggy, and dog Harley but, of course, he couldn’t. The doctor told him he would release him once he could walk across the room on his own. Two friends, Jennifer Russell and Wanda Neirynck, and his sister, Terri Wolfe, rotated in one week shifts staying with Steve in the condo where he was recovering.

“Wanda was just great. She just took care of me. Terri was tough part of the time and easy on me the rest of the time, but Jennifer relied on her military background and told me to ‘Suck it up, soldier!’ and get busy or I’d never go home. That got me back on track and up on my feet.”

Faber returned home Dec. 1 and now gets around using a cane to steady himself. He returned to his seat on the Kewanee City Council on Monday, Dec.11, just in time to vote on two items, a referendum to increase the sales tax to pay for a comprehensive street improvement program, something he had been advocating for years, and to deny a request to participate in a countywide tourism proposal where Kewanee would provide a majority of the budget, something he had been opposed to in the past. He also took part in swearing in Kewanee’s second female police officer, Sarah Hanson.

“It was as if I hadn’t even been gone,” said Faber, adding it was great to be back.

Still doing rehab and taking 27 pills a day, Faber has a ways to go before he’s fully recovered, but when asked where he would place himself on a scale where zero was the transplant and 100% was back to normal, Faber said he’s at about 60%.

Faber is also looking forward to having all three of his sons and their families together this Christmas for the first time in years. In past years they often came at different times but this Christmas they will all be together under one roof.

Most people take breathing for granted, but this Christmas Steve Faber realizes that the best gift he will ever receive is being able to inhale and exhale on his own again. He is quick to point out that Christmas is more about giving than receiving and, even though he died, the ultimate gift was given by the young man in Florida who made the decision to donate his organs so that others might live.