Dust Surgical Masks

Family, friends to hold fundraiser for double lung transplant recipient

Brandy Clark knew that she had her dad back when she lost track of him in the aisles while shopping at a Target store.

Before Max Clark, 64, of Salford, received a double lung transplant at Temple University Hospital in May 2010, he struggled to walk and breathe, lugging along an oxygen tank.

He suffered from emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and was told his condition would eventually kill him.

With only 10 to 14 percent of his lung capacity, Clark couldn’t walk more than 20 feet without resting. Years of smoking and working with wood finishes and in wood dust from his job as a cabinet maker had taken their toll.

“You’re gasping,” he said. “You fight constantly for air. I accepted the fact that I needed a lung transplant.” He put off the surgery as long as possible until, “It’s your only choice.”

“He was at the last stages about four years ago,” said Peg Clark, about her husband. “He was told (then that) in a year’s time he had less than 50 percent chance of being alive.”

“I fooled them and lived three years, three really tough years,” said Clark. “The only cure was a transplant. It was pretty much a terminal thing.”

Now Clark is a new man and extremely grateful to his doctors, his donor’s family and the Gift of Life, the regional organ procurement program.

However, he continues to go to outpatient pulmonary rehab three times a week and takes about 30 pills a day — medications needed to prevent his body from rejecting his new lungs.

“Your body is constantly trying to throw it out,” he said, about his new lungs.

Clark’s operation cost more than $1 million.

“That’s why we like to say he’s the million-dollar man,” said Brandy Clark.

Brandy Clark and her friend Christine Magro have organized a beef and beer fundraiser for July 23 at the Sons of Italy club, where Brandy Clark works as a bartender.

The event, which will include raffles, will also benefit the Gift of Life.

“The medical costs are absurd,” said Max Clark. “Even people with insurance are screwed and we have good insurance.”

Between ongoing treatments, blood tests, doctors’ visits and medications, the various co-pays add up — and Clark is no longer able to work.

GoodBoys Nation - Archives » Dust Storm!

I never thought I’d ever see the kind of dust storm that blew through here last night . It was a scene right out of Lawrence of Arabia, just replace the sand dunes with the palm trees and the camels with houses, garages, and swimming pools.

Courtesy of The Blaze, they call it a “Haboob” !

It was your typical monsoon-y kind of day, a little humid, the clouds building to the east and south, but nothing unusual. What was unusual, however, was looking out my patio towards the southeast at a little after 7 PM and seeing this I headed over to Accuweather, and sure enough, the severe thunderstorm warnings were up. This part of the warning caught my eye:

I’m thinking dust storm with a little bit of blowing dust, because that’s all I’ve ever seen since we’ve lived out here. But nothing could have prepared me for what we actually ended up getting (click the Gilbert video link - it’s fourth one down - so you see exactly what I’m talking about). All of a sudden, I’m hearing our wind chimes tinkling like crazy, so I look out the back door and everything - and I do mean everything is gray, fuzzy, obscurred, like you were living inside a big gray cloud. Except that cloud was blowing dirt, blowing hard dirt. Even my favorite streetlight looked like what you’d see in the middle of a heavy snowstorm back in New England, barely visible amidst all the blowing dust. It was like a pea souper in London, or something out of the Dust Bowl years.

After retreating inside to get a surgical mask, I was able to head outside to snap a couple of pictures. First, looking east from my front yard:

Then looking west:

And no, that’s not a dirty camera lens you’re looking at, that’s the flash picking up the dirt flying through the air. It was wild. And as the article said, this wasn’t some little localized event; the storm was fifty - count ‘em, fifty! - miles wide. Pretty incredible.

The wind howled and dirt flew for a good hour and a half. Finally, after it started calming down I took a walk down to the mailbox. All the cars on the street were covered with a thick coat of dust. It reminded me of pictures taken after Mt. St. Helens erupted.

But that’s life during monsoon season here in the Valley of the Sun - you never know what you’re going to get.

Tomorrow everything out on the patio gets washed down. It’ll need it.

Emerging infectious diseases and the threat to occupational health in the U.S. and Canada

Forest fires and regional haze in Southeast Asia

The Dust Bowl, an agricultural and social history

The Dust Bowl

Respiratory protection handbook