Pete Schwob was just a kid when he collapsed while playing football with his dad in the yard, coughing up blood. It was the start of a lifelong battle with a rare lung disease that would severely damage his lungs until 2005 when Pete’s life would be healed thanks to a donor hero’s gift.
At just nine-years-old, doctors diagnosed Pete with idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis, a rare disease which caused his lungs to periodically fill with blood. Because Pete was young, doctors told him that he would likely survive the disease. But as the years went by Pete, who was still young and athletic, had increased difficulty breathing due to the amount of damage his lungs had sustained. He needed a lung transplant.
In 2005, the Gators were winning the Florida-Tennessee football game when Pete got a phone call. He thought at first it was his daughter, calling to ask if he watched the game. Instead, the doctors told Pete he would be gifted a new pair of lungs. A few hours later, he was in the prep room.
Pete and his donor hero were a perfect match and because of his donor hero, Pete has been blessed to live to see his two daughters get married, see four grandchildren be born and celebrate his 35th wedding anniversary.
“The Lord has given [us] those events to celebrate,” Pete said.
Pete now works with We Are Sharing Hope and Donate Life SC to educate the community and encourage others to become donors to give the gift of life to someone waiting for their second chance at life.
“It’s a way to give back to the community for the extra life I’ve been given,” Pete said. He said his decision to go for transplant surgery and to become a donor himself was an easy one. “They [donor recipients] do it because they want to see their daughters being born, graduating from high school. If someone in your family . . . if they need a particular organ to continue on with their life, they need everyone to become an organ donor.”