Coach Trent Todd - Back from Life Support

Many of you are familiar with one of the coaches in our association named Trent Todd. He has been a part of SportsLeader for over 5 years now and simply put is one of the most inspiring men I have ever met. That is an understatement. The video above is a quick recap in Trent's words.

Trent has coached youth football with the Cincinnati area based Lakota Stallions for these past five years. His players and their families love this man. They know they were blessed with a coach who cared about them.

Over that period of time Trent's health deteriorated quite a bit. He was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which in simple terms meant that he needed a double lung transplant.

Even in that state, he created numerous videos in the hope that he could inpsire coaches to mentor their athletes. He wanted to give more. If you check out our videos section they are all there: http://www.sportsleader.org/videos

Last spring he pretty much was on death's doorstep. He went for a checkup and the doctors had to sit him down and basically tell him, "You can't go home. You need a pair of lungs now - right now. If they don't come soon we will have to have some very difficult conversations with your wife."

Soon after a set of lungs did come in. They prepped him for surgery and then something happened. They could not go through with the surgery ... This happened a second time ... great news, prep for surgery - heartbreak.

Things got so drastic that Trent simply could not breathe anymore, not even with multiple oxygen tanks. He had to go on life support. While on life support the doctors told his wife," Your husband has a day or two. You need to prepare yourself for some difficult decisions."

Shortly thereafter another set of lungs arrived. After having gone through this twice, there was a feeling of hope but yet reservation.

This time it worked and that was just the beginning of the minor miracles.

Trent received his lungs on May 31st. By July 13th he was headed home, oxygen-tank free. 

The normal procedure for a double lung transplant recipient is a minimum of 3 months in the hospital, followed by another month on oxygen in a setting less than 100 miles away from the clinic in case of emergency.

Trent progressed so amazingly that he went all the way home 43 days later, breathing completely on his own. He is one of the first patients in history to do this.

Maybe, just maybe, Someone wants a little more out of Trent Todd.

He is an example of a man who lives constantly striving to help others in any way he can, big or small. We will be awarding him this year's Coach of Uncommon Strength award on February 24th at Cincinnati Moeller high school at 6:30 PM. The event will be free and is open to everyone. Please bring your families. Trent will be speaking and I'm sure he will inspire you.

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