Eupnea – the medical term given for normal, everyday breathing – comes without a second thought for many people.

For Luke Chadwick, breathing was on his mind every time he tried to inhale and exhale.

The former manager for the Bainbridge boys basketball team and a constant presence at many games on his motorized cart, Chadwick has suffered from secondary pulmonary hypertension due to two holes in his heart – one in the lower right chamber and one in his aorta – for much of his life.

“I was a pretty sick guy for years,” he said. “It’s been a scary (last) five years. It’s been touch and go.”

The condition was originally diagnosed as a heart murmur, but doctors at Children’s Hospital discovered his true condition when Chadwick came to the United States when he was 2 years old.

Born in Taiwan, he was given up for adoption and chosen by his eventual parents, Kent and Cathy Chadwick, through Adoption Advocates International in Port Angeles.

With the late diagnosis, doctors could only give him so long to live – but Chadwick wouldn’t let that derail him.

“I’m a fighter,” he said. “I’ve always have been.”

So, as he grew older, trips to Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington Medical Center – the main hospital in a five-state region to handle transplants, including lungs – became a way of life for Chadwick.

He got to know everyone at UW on a first-time basis, but missed a ton of school time in the constant shuttling process.

“I just managed the best way I could,” he said. “I made do with what I had, which was oxygen medication (those who suffer from pulmonary hypertension are put on a variety of drugs to help them manage as best they can) but I knew that wouldn’t really save my life.”

It wasn’t until three years ago, after Chadwick had been at Children’s Hospital for yet another long stay, that the decision was made to get himself on the national waiting list for a double lung transplant.

“There’s always the serious risk that Luke wouldn’t survive the operation,” Kent said. “We were aware of that when Luke made his decision. The odds are good (on survival) but still (he’s) take(n) a chance on really feeling well.”

But policy changes by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1998 made the main factor not how high one was on the list, but rather how sick someone is depending on a variety of test results and survival rate of a recipient of a lung.

And with the average wait time for a lung being 1,068 days, according to a United Network for Organ Sharing/Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network 2003 annual report, it basically turns the list into a lottery.

It was a process that Chadwick said he doesn’t agree with.

“You could be number one (on the list) but number 99 gets it before you,” he said. “I know someone who was waiting for four years and I got it before them within a year.

“To me, it’s not fair, because it’s life or death,” he continued. “Why have a list if you choose the sickest first? They try to be fair, but there’s no way to be fair.”

But Chadwick wasn’t fair to himself, as he admitted he pushed himself to attend as many basketball games as he could when he was manager of the team in 2007, when Bainbridge made its memorable run to the state championship game.

“There were times when I got (too) tired, but I pushed myself because it was an exciting time,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of history. So I pushed my limits way over.”

Former BHS boys basketball coach Scott Orness said he was worried about Chadwick sometimes, especially when he went to great lengths to be with the team.

He remembers a game at Cleveland when the two squads were playing at Boren Junior High and Chadwick had taken the bus from the hospital, then drove the last two miles on his cart – in 27 degree weather – to be with the team.

“His lips were blue,” he said. “I was really concerned about him.”

But Orness knew that Chadwick would be in a good mood no matter what. That became evident when he first met his future team manager back in 2001, when he was hired on as a teacher and as the coach at Bainbridge.

Orness, who was in charge of taking care of Chadwick during a fire drill, had to do it when Orness and another teacher accidentally set off the fire alarm messing with air cannons in the hall.

“It was pouring down rain and the fields were terribly muddy,” he said. “I carried him down to his chair and took him out, but it got stuck in the mud.

“At that moment a lot of kids freaked out, but Luke was laughing and having a great time,” Orness continued. “That started our friendship right away.”

When Chadwick made it to BHS, he immediately got involved with the team, attending when he could due to his health.

Orness also had to figure out what Chadwick could do exactly.

“I gave Luke some duties, but he always wasn’t the best at those duties,” he said with a laugh. “He couldn’t do anything to exert himself. He got way too tied up in games emotionally, so he wasn’t good about keeping stats.

“But Luke was just part of the family,” Orness continued. “I put him in charge of the younger managers, but I was just happy when he walked in the door each day. That was enough for me.”

It wasn’t until March of 2008 – St. Patrick’s Day to be exact, of all days – that Chadwick finally got the call that a set of lungs would be waiting for him at the UW Medical Center.

A donor, who had died in Spokane, was listed as an organ donor, and her lungs matched what Chadwick needed.

After holding an impromptu open house for friends and fielding numerous calls, the family took the ferry over at 11:30 p.m. Chadwick then went through the lengthy pre-op process before finally going under the anesthesia at 7 a.m. for the successful six-hour surgery.

He was in the intensive care unit for a week to make sure his body didn’t reject the new lungs or let infection set in. Chadwick was then moved to a regular hospital room for two more weeks.

After a bout with pneumonia, his doctor set him up in an apartment on Capitol Hill near the Medical Center so they could keep an eye on him.

It was there that Chadwick took his first walk – from his apartment to the movie theater – without needing a motorized cart or oxygen.

Orness and former assistant Stuart Mitchell also took him out for a steak dinner, one of the promises he made to Chadwick.

The other?

“I did tell him that part of the deal was I’d get him into a basketball game,” he said. “I might have to do it now that I’m at Woodward.”

Two weeks ago, Chadwick went out to celebrate his 22nd birthday by going salsa dancing.

Now, with a set of healthy lungs, Chadwick is thinking of the future.

“Now that I’m well, I’m thinking I can go out, get a girlfriend, get a job, go out to the big city and stay out late rather than go home early,” he said.