Valdosta man needs double lung transplant

Published 7:15 am Friday, November 4, 2016

VALDOSTA, Ga. — In March, Terrence Junn was swimming and ziplining on vacation. Tuesday, he heads for a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., fighting for breath every mile of the way.

In only 10 weeks, what seemed to be a minor irritation became a life-threatening situation. Junn, 58, a 23-year Air Force veteran, has been diagnosed with terminal pulminary fibrosis, leaving him unable to breathe without artificial aid and hoping for a double lung transplant at the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville campus.

“Over the last two or three months, he started getting tired when walking, so we got it checked,” said his wife, Sandy. 

On Sept. 3, he went to see his wife at her job at Walmart and could barely make it inside from the parking lot, she said. They immediately went to South Georgia Medical Center, where he spent five days in intensive care.

Now Terrence is on 100 percent oxygen support. At times while being interviewed, he became so winded his wife had to answer in his stead.

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 “You wonder ‘Where do you get it from?’ ” Terrence said.

Sandy is pretty sure she knows where his illness came from. She thinks it had to do with his work with hazardous materials in the Air Force. He said that, while posted to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida for several years, he worked with an Air Force research organization and was exposed to a number of chemicals.

“The doctors said I breathed in something that triggered this,” he said. 

The Junns have decades of his military medical records and “can’t believe how many times he was sick with bronchitis,” she said.

Tuesday, the Junns head to the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville clinic to get the ball rolling, meeting the transplant team. Because of Terrence’s declining health, he’s been given high priority on transplant organ availability lists, Sandy said.

No specific cause for the disease has been officially determined, so Sandy believes there won’t be any financial relief from the military beyond their Tri-Care insurance.

“The cost of this operation has been estimated at $900,000-$1 million,” she said. 

Even with Tri-Care, the portion the Junns must pay plus the loss of Terrence’s income from his desk job at Moody AFB for several months of recovery could be ruinous, Sandy said. A powered wheelchair delivered a few days ago cost $9,000; the Junns must come up with $1,700 of that, Sandy said.

An account for donations to help the Junns with their expenses has been set up in Valdosta at Bank of the Ozarks under Sandy Junn’s name. A GoFundMe account for the Junns has also been established.

“This happened so quickly,” Sandy said. “It’s not something we could plan for; not something we could save money for.”

An account for donations to help the Junns with their expenses has been set up at Bank of the Ozarks under Sandy Junn’s name. A GoFundMe account for the Junns has also been set up.

Terry Richards is an editor at The Valdosta Daily Times.