Date: Fri 08-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Rauner-transplant

Full Text:

Rich Rauner's Return To Newtown Is Marked By Gratitude And More Generosity

(with photos)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

A Pancake Day will be held on Saturday, January 16, from 8 am to 2 pm, at the

United Methodist Church on Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook to benefit heart

transplant recipient Richard Rauner.

The event is being sponsored by the Newtown Lions Club, the Newtown

Congregational Church, and the Methodist Church. Tickets, $5 per adult, $2.50

per child, or $15 per family, are available at the churches, the Booth

Library, from Lions Club members or at the door.

Mr Rauner, 58, whose eight-month wait for a new heart finally ended

successfully on December 17, was discharged from Temple University Hospital on

New Year's Eve. Friends in Newtown arranged for his transportation back to his

home in the Shady Rest section of Sandy Hook.

He returned to Temple this week, on Tuesday afternoon, for the first of what

were to be weekly biopsies of his new heart, a procedure necessary to

determine whether his body is rejecting the transplanted organ.

"The tests will be done on Wednesday [January 6] and if everything goes well,

I could be back [in Newtown] on Thursday," Mr Rauner said. "If not, I'll

probably have to stay there for a week for them to adjust my medicines -- I'm

taking 60 pills a day, and I'm also a diabetic."

Before the transplant he was pedaling 10 to 17 miles a day on an exercise bike

at the hospital, but now the simple exertion of walking and doing everyday

tasks leaves him exhausted, he admitted.

"Plus you lose the feelings in your nerve endings, so everything you do makes

you feel klutzy," he said.

Because the surgery also has left him temporarily without immunity, he must

wear a face mask for the next three months and not be exposed to persons who

are sick. But he plans to gradually get back into life in the community.

"I'm so blessed," he said. "I can't say thank you enough to everyone who has

done so much for me."

Art Bennett and his son, Dennis, drove to Philadelphia on December 31 to pick

up Mr Rauner when he was discharged. Four hours later, about 8 pm on New

Year's Eve, they were back home.

"I sat in my living room and cried for about four hours because I was so

happy," Mr Rauner said.

Another friend, Paula Devonshire, the daughter-in-law of Newtown police

dispatcher Linda Rasmussen, took him out on a quick trip to the bank, the Drug

Center and to pick up a few items at the grocery store.

"She did the shopping because I can't do much," he said. "I have some swelling

in my legs, which is not uncommon after transplants -- some patients gain 15

pounds [from water] in their legs. I wear special nylon stockings and it will

get better."

Last Saturday all Rich Rauner could think about was the monthly spaghetti

dinner to be held that night at the Methodist Church, where he is a member of

the congregation.

"My minister, Terry Pfeiffer, and his wife, Margey, brought me a spaghetti

dinner," he said. "They've been so wonderful to me, as have so many people in

Newtown. It's a wonderful town -- I don't ever plan to leave."

Mr Rauner said that Tony Gentile, a former co-worker at the post office, has

offered to drive him back to Philadelphia for his biopsies.

Now well into his ninth month of medical treatment, Rich Rauner isn't sure yet

what he faces in the way of bills.

"I'm the million-dollar man," he said. "There's no doubt that I have exceeded

the lifetime limit of my insurance."

He spent more than eight months in the transplant unit at $2,800 a day, even

before the nine-hour surgery which required a large team of surgeons,

anesthesiologists, nurses and other personnel. His medications alone are more

than $15,000 a year, he said.

"I had good insurance with the post office," he said. "I'm also a veteran, so

I get some help there, and I was placed in a special study that is reviewing

organ rejection so I will get my major steroids free for two years."

Mr Rauner said he is so grateful to Barbara Nelson, his best friend and a

former Newtowner who now lives in Southbury. "She got me a new stove and

refrigerator, and butcher-block kitchen cabinets, and has just done so much

for me," he said. "She just had (vascular) surgery on the day I came home, but

she's doing well."

Mr Rauner learned to use a computer while he was hospitalized and hopes to

obtain one so that he can work as forcefully to publicize the need for organ

donations as he did in the effort to get a Huntington's Disease clinic in

Connecticut. A member of the state task force on Huntington's Disease, he saw

that dream realized in 1996, the same year that Deidamia Whitman, his

significant other for 30 years, died of the disease.

He also is looking forward to resuming singing in the church choir and also

doing solo work.

"I'm working on a melody of music, something that will intermingle my thoughts

with music, that I can perform in church as my way of saying thank you," he

said.

"I have so many thank yous to make that I'd need to buy all the space in The

Bee to thank every one."

In addition to the pancake breakfast, contributions for Mr Rauner may be sent

to the Richard Rauner Fund, Box 111, Newtown 06470, or to the fund in care of

Mary Herbert at Fleet Bank, 6 Queen Street, Newtown 06470.