Drive to survive: Pulmonary fibrosis sidelined a racecar driver, but not for long
Todd Stark thought he was out of shape, but a lung condition caused his breathlessness. Only a transplant could get him back in the driver’s seat.
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Todd Stark is the kind of guy who scoffs at the idea of spending his retirement years watching cooking shows on TV. He’s a racecar driver who prefers to spend his time on the track or in his shop.
But his goal of fixing up the car and racing again got delayed.
In 2020, Todd and his wife Carol were in the process of moving to Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Members of Sports Car Club of America, Todd and Carol bought a place where Todd could have a machine shop. But his body wasn’t cooperating.
Todd’s brother-in-law noticed Todd’s uncharacteristic breathlessness and commented that for the first time, it was way too easy to outwork Todd. He wondered if something was wrong.
“Anytime I'd go outside and work relatively hard, I would start panting like a hot dog,” Todd said. “I just kept thinking I was out of shape, but it went on for years.”
After his primary care provider got the results from an x-ray, she sent Todd to a pulmonology specialist at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center where he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Todd would need a lung transplant, which required a designated caregiver and a head-to-toe medical evaluation with a strict deadline of his 71st birthday in August 2021. Todd was concerned that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he wouldn’t get the tests completed in time; but his care team made it happen.
“A lung transplant is one of the most intense surgeries a person can get,” said Jordan Dunitz, MD, a pulmonologist and lung transplant surgeon with M Health Fairview and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “I tell people that when you leave the hospital, you can eat, sleep, exercise, and take your medicine. Someone else has to do everything else.”
Plans on hold
While Todd completed the necessary tests, his condition continued to deteriorate. He was on oxygen. Carting the bottles around him proved to be an inconvenience.
“To keep working on the shop, I decided to fab up some tubing long enough to reach everywhere in the shop, including going up to the 15-foot ceiling on a lift,” he said. “So the oxygen bottle would just sit while I moved around.”
By fall 2021, breathing got more difficult for Todd, and his shop work came to a halt.
“I had to help him from the couch onto an office chair with wheels and roll him to the bathroom,” Carol remembered “He couldn’t get enough air to walk the short distance.”
Right after Thanksgiving, Todd was back in the hospital.
“They told him not to plan on coming home,” Carol said. “He would be in the hospital until he could get a transplant.”
Carol wore out the tires on her car making the 45-minute drive from Cannon Falls to Minneapolis. It was all worth it on New Year’s Day when Todd got the call that a new set of lungs were ready for him. He had surgery the following day and remained in the hospital until February 2022.
Taking advantage of all life has to offer
Four years later, Todd and Carol are finally able to live the life they intended when they moved to Cannon Falls. It took Todd a year and a half to get strong enough to set up his shop. He has since started his business, FastDad Machine Works. He says, “if it’s metal and matters to you, I have the tools and experience to make it.”
He is also easing his way back into racing with a class this spring, which he says is giving him motivation to be physically fit, so he can return to the people and competition he loves.
Dr. Dunitz says the most rewarding part of his job is to see people go after their dreams after their transplant.
“Todd is a shining example of someone who's taking total advantage of the benefits that they receive. He's doing more than most 75-year-olds without a transplant. He’s making the most of the gift that he's gotten.”
Both Todd and Dr. Dunitz acknowledge that it couldn’t be possible without organ donors.
“One limiting factor for lung transplants is the availability of lungs,” Dunitz said. “Every transplant program loses some folks because they don’t find a donor in time. I encourage people to sign their donor card or check the box when they renew their driver's license and let your family members know your wishes to be an organ donor.”
The M Health Fairview lung transplant program is one of the oldest and most successful transplant programs in the world with more than 1,200 lung transplants.
