Victor and Kathy Mann have an incredible love for one another.
I noticed the strength and determination each of them shared when I visited their home in Massillon.
“This man’s my life,” said Kathy Mann.
“I could have given up any particular time, or a couple of times I thought about it, but then I couldn’t leave her,” said Victor Mann.
While the couple held hands and shared their story, Mann also told me he loved karaoke. He has a setup at home.
"I still got a hole in my neck, so I'm assuming once that closes I'll be able to sing a little better," he said
He’s ready to get back to singing like he once did, but his focus now is on recovery after complications from a double lung transplant that put him in the hospital for the majority of 10 months.
At first, things were going well for Mann.
“I got up and was walking the halls after the surgery,” he said.
Soon after, his body started rejecting the new lungs. At times, he was near death.
“Sometimes patients have these antibodies that build up and no matter what we do for them, it’s not if rejection’s going to happen, it’s when it’s going to happen,” said certified transplant nurse at Cleveland Clinic Noelle Armstrong.
"There’s a whole bunch of different interventions we can do for those sorts of things," she said. "In Vic’s case, his was a little bit more complex in what we did to treat him.”
Kathy Mann said he was on ECMO for about seven weeks. According to the Mayo Clinic, it’s a machine that pumps blood outside of the body to a heart and lung machine. It’s used for life-threatening heart and lung conditions.
“Post transplant, [Victor] faced complications including anti-body mediated rejection, airway blockages, infections, and life-threatening bleeding,” said Cleveland Clinic Corporate Communications Senior Associate Grant Passell.
Victor Mann's caregivers at Cleveland Clinic were impressed with his determination and his wife's unwavering support.
"I would tell him we're a team, we came in there together and we were leaving there together," said Kathy Mann.
“Being able to continually tell yourself you can do something and having that right support, I think being able to believe in yourself, as corny as that can sound, I think knowing that you can do something when everything else against you is telling you that you can’t , I think truly does speak on that part of the human spirit,” said Armstrong.
Mann remains on oxygen but is grateful to be back home as therapy continues.
The fight was worth it.
“If I didn’t have a transplant, I probably wouldn’t be here right now,” he said. “Ask as many questions as you can beforehand, we didn’t know half of what we were in for.”
Kathy Mann had a transplant of her own years before, and things went well. Her son was her living kidney donor.
“It will be six years in July,” she said. “It was a walk in the park.”
According toLifebanc, one of the original seven independent organ procurement organizations in the United States., as of February 13, 2025 :
There are 2,646 Ohioans on the national waiting list for transplants.
- 2,087 are waiting for a kidney
- 263 for a liver transplant
- 257 for a heart transplant
- 70 for lung transplant
- 76 for kidney and pancreas
- 28 for pancreas alone
- Eight for heart & lung
- 21 individuals are waiting for an intestinal transplant.
About 1,150 northeast Ohioans are on the waiting list.
You can register to be a donor here.
