Tonawanda man receives heart, lungs from neighbor

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A Tonawanda native who needed a double lung and heart transplant has been waiting for a donor match for months.

This past week, Patrick McDonald received his new heart and lungs from someone right here in the community who lived just minutes away from him.

Dianne Cwik has known the McDonald family for years. Patrick was the son of Dianne’s longtime friend, Chrislyn McDonald. In years past, both ladies played on the same softball and bowling team. Patrick even served as ring bearer at a family wedding.

Last Monday, Dianne suddenly lost 44-year-old son, Adam Shugg.

“My son would love to be somewhat of a hero,” Cwik said.

When visiting her son Adam at the hospital, Dianne was approached by ConnectLife about donating his organs to those in need.

“Turning a tragedy into a triumph,” Cwik said. “I didn’t know who they were going to go to, his organs, but if they were all good, you can have them all.”

After mourning over her son’s situation, she checked Facebook and saw WIVB News 4’s story on Patrick and how he needed a new pair of lungs and a heart.

Cwik spoke to ConnectLife about the situation the next day and they worked diligently to get in touch with Patrick’s medical team.

Then, they found out that her son was a match.

“I said, please don’t tell anybody because we want to make sure that this is going to be crucial, is it going to take, you know, you don’t want to get everybody’s hopes up quite yet,” Cwik said.

The successful transplant for Patrick took place last Thursday. News 4 spoke with his parents, Shawn and Chrislyn, on Monday, who are both at the hospital while Patrick recovers.

“Patrick even said before anything that, ‘Wouldn’t it be ironic if I got Adam’s heart and lung?’ and Dianne contacted me,” Chrislyn said. “I was just beside myself. I didn’t know what — I was like, frozen.”

“The best piece of my son was his heart and it’s going to live on,” Dianne said. “I can’t wait to give Patrick a hug knowing that I’m hugging my son.”

Patrick’s family said every day, he gets stronger.

“Good to see him breathing through his lungs without struggling. Today they just took another chest tube out and they keep reducing his medications,” Shawn said. “Everything keeps getting better every day.”

Patrick was originally meant to become the first living heart donor in the U.S. in eight years, but before the transplant began, doctors found blood clots in his heart and weren’t able to give it to someone else.

“It was very disappointing that they weren’t going to be able to use it, and we are [disappointed] too,” Chrislyn said.

“Who knows if he would have died before he even got the heart and lung because of this. Nobody knew [about the clots],” Dianne said. “The only reason why they knew all these blood clots were in his heart was because now they had to test his heart to be able to give to somebody else.”

Dianne said the situation must have had some type of divine intervention, that Patrick and her son, living only minutes apart, ended up giving life to a friend.

Patrick is still currently in recovery at NYU Langone. His family said if he’s without any complications, he can come home in 30 days.

Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.