One day in September 2014, Dean Hutto was relaxing in downtown Denver with some friends who shared his career interest in consumer electronics and were in town for a trade event.

The scene would have been unremarkable to a casual observer. They couldn’t have known that Hutto’s life was about to change with a phone call.

A few folks might have noticed Hutto’s oxygen tank, a necessity because he suffered from interstitial lung disease (ILD), which had scarred and inflamed his lungs so severely that he needed to transplant both of them. He’d been on the waiting list for nearly two years when his phone rang, with a voice on the other end telling him that the team at the Transplant Center at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital had found a donor.

In short order, Dr. Michael Weyant, then a lung transplant surgeon at the hospital, replaced Hutto’s diseased lungs with new, healthy ones. Hutto became another recipient of what he calls “an incredible gift.”

A determination to serve

Hutto forges ahead today, grateful for the 11 years and counting that his transplanted lungs have given him but also determined to help others who are facing the fears he felt waiting for a transplant. He also strives to represent all patients navigating a complicated health care and hospital system.

Hutto’s ILD forced an end to his 35-year career in consumer electronics in 2013, but he has filled the void with service. He is a mentor for the Lung Transplant Foundation, a volunteer advocate for Donor Alliance and co-chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Council at University of Colorado Hospital, whose mission he describes as “representing the voice of patients” when leadership makes policy decisions that affect them. He joins other patients, family members and hospital staff in that work.

Hutto’s motivation in undertaking this work is simple.

“After my last day of work, I looked for opportunities to help people,” he said.

The loneliness imposed by his disease and the wait for a transplant – despite the unwavering support of his wife, Karyn, and their three sons – drove him.

“I didn’t have anyone to talk to. You are on your own,” he said.

He was determined to help lessen those feelings of isolation in others, he said.

A big part of that work is telling others his story. It’s a complicated one in which bad luck turned out to be good luck. At the same time, good luck often came at a heavy price.

A shocking diagnosis of ILD

Hutto’s health challenges began during a 2010 softball game in Highlands Ranch, his home since moving to Colorado from California in 1997. A sudden pain turned out to be a torn Achilles tendon. He had surgery to repair the injury, then began physical rehabilitation that started with massage. As the rehab intensified, Hutto said he was surprised at how much trouble he had breathing. He was just 51 and in reasonably good shape.

His therapists had the same thought. “They said, ‘you shouldn’t be to the point that you can’t catch your breath,’” he recalled.

Hutto thought the culprit might be severe seasonal allergies, but a visit to an allergist darkened the picture. After a spirometry test to measure Hutto’s lung capacity, the allergist suggested that he get a chest X-ray. A few minutes after he got home, the allergist called with worrying news.

“He said, ‘I don’t like what I see here.’”

The therapist advised Hutto to have his primary care physician give him a referral to a pulmonologist, a specialist in lung and respiratory problems.

The lung specialist used a pulse oximeter to measure the oxygen in Hutto’s blood and his heart rate and determined that he needed supplemental oxygen and steroids to control the inflammation in his lungs. In September 2011, with his health continuing to decline while his need for oxygen increased, he had a lung biopsy that revealed his ILD, a condition he’d never heard of.

Hutto was understandably shocked. He had noticed no prior symptoms of this serious threat to his breathing — and his life.

The long journey back from interstitial lung disease

In simple terms, the diagnosis meant his lungs were failing quickly. Fortunately, his pulmonologist had studied under Dr. Martin Zamora, then the medical director of the Lung Transplant Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He called Zamora, who reviewed Hutto’s case and told him that he was a good candidate for a double lung transplant.

With that, “things went in fast motion,” Hutto recalled. Within two weeks, he began a battery of tests to ensure that his body could handle transplant surgery. He was notified the day before Thanksgiving in 2012 that he’d been placed on the transplant waiting list.

Hutto did not sit by idly. He began work with the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at the University of Colorado Hospital to strengthen his body for the rigors of surgery. He shed 30 pounds while determinedly laboring through the rehab regimen. He eventually needed a mask that delivered up to 18 liters of oxygen while he exercised.

Near the end of 2012, a literal and figurative positive note sounded in his life. He joined the “Harmonicats,” a group of pulmonary rehabilitation patients who met weekly to strengthen their diaphragms by playing musical numbers on their harmonicas. Thirteen years later, his commitment to the group remains steadfast.

“We are as much a support group as a musical group,” Hutto said.

Karyn and their three young sons also anchored him with their words and actions. One night, he enlisted them in a challenge at Red Rocks Amphitheater — an unlikely site for a visit from a double-lung transplant candidate. But Hutto did exactly that, gathering them to attend a Zac Brown Band concert. They all wore backpacks with oxygen tanks and climbed the steep steps to the 40^th row of the venue.

“It took me a tank of oxygen to go to the restroom,” Hutto recalled.

But he’d proven that his lung disease couldn’t deter him from doing the things he loved with those he loved – and from giving himself the best chance to be around for them for the long haul.

The support needed for the transplant

Many helping hands from his community also supported him after he received the call that the hospital had matched him with a donor. His oldest son, then a senior who played soccer at Mountain Vista High School, stepped on the field with his teammates, all of them wearing “#DH” written in black marker on their wrists. The cross-country, football and girls’ softball teams followed suit.

Hutto is keenly aware of and grateful for the many expressions of emotional and financial support he received during his ordeal. It’s one reason he wants to serve others facing the same struggles. In addition, his own experiences teach him that health challenges do not end after a transplant.

“Going into it, the team makes clear that transplant is not a cure,” he said.

He endured organ rejection problems three times during the first post-transplant year.

“I was sick all the time.”

Hutto vividly remembers receiving massive doses of steroids that often left him curled up in the room with his home theater as he struggled through sleepless nights with a massive appetite and confused thoughts.

A decade later, his health has stabilized, but he still deals with “good days and bad days. There is no normal.” He also manages a regimen of medications and supplements that take up “two packed shelves” in a cabinet in his home office.

A commitment to serve others

Hutto navigates the sometimes bumpy post-transplant road with a sense of gratitude for his life and a determination to make it meaningful. He was spared by a donor he can never personally thank. He acknowledges it by lending his assistance to others.

A big part of that commitment is his work with the Patient and Family Advisory Council, which began when he met Bella Wong, also the recipient of a double lung transplant at University of Colorado Hospital. Wong, an advisory council member, and Monique McCollum, staff co-chair for the council and manager of health literacy at the hospital, took Hutto to lunch and explained the council’s purpose and mission.

He didn’t require much convincing. He is dedicated to “highlighting the patient voice” in the day-to-day operations of the hospital. He points to three key goals for the Patient and Family Advisory Council: recruiting new staff, patient and caregiver members; contributing positively to the patient experience; and strengthening the council’s visibility and partnership with the organization.

He is also a member of the Non-Beneficial Intervention Committee, which addresses tough conversations, such as those that arise when a patient’s loved ones don’t agree with decisions made by medical staff. He also participates in unit rounding, during which he and other volunteers support staff by delivering food to them, while also helping to acquaint them with the work of the Patient and Family Advisory Council.

Meanwhile, he spreads his message and offers his services to people he meets, not only through the Lung Transplant Foundation and Donor Alliance, but also at forums like the American Lung Association’s Annual Gala, where in 2023, he shared the story of his battle with ILD and his post-transplant life.

While he often looks back on those experiences, Hutto doesn’t dwell on the reasons for the difficult path he was forced to follow in 2010. He sees instead many chances to help others in similar situations look forward to a brighter day.

“I don’t want to look in the rearview mirror, trying to figure out what caused all this,” he said. “I concentrate on what I can affect today.”