Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307180141
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
McCaughan has competed in the olympics before. The Transplant olympics.
McCaughan took a bronze medal last year at the Transplant Games in Los Angeles - less than a year after receiving a new heart.
"I used bowling as my goal," said McCaughan, 57, a former government contractor from Norfolk. "When I was in the hospital, I visualized myself on the lanes. The psychological effect was very positive."
The results weren't just therapeutic. McCaughan is within 10 pins of his career-high average of 204 and he was leading by more than 100 pins Saturday after the first three-game block at Lee-Hi Lanes.
McCaughan followed a 647 series with a 570 afternoon set and was assured of a medal in the division for senior men 55 to 64. The top three bowlers in each group return to Lee-Hi for the finals starting this morning at 10.
"The first thing he said when he came out of surgery was, `When can I start bowling again?' " McCaughan's wife, Virginia, said. "Bowling is what brought him back."
McCaughan was bowling three times a week, not counting practice, when he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and congestive heart failure in April, 1991. In August of that year, he had a heart attack.
"I called to my son [Jon] because he knows CPR," Virginia McCaughan said, "but we couldn't get my husband's mouth open. It was clenched shut.
"My son told me to go get a wooden spoon, but that didn't work. You can do brain damage if you can't get oxygen to it, so my son gave him CPR through the nose."
McCaughan, subject of a feature on the TV program "Rescue 911," was in cardiac arrest for 45 minutes and spent five weeks in a coma. However, he was aware of voices and encouragement from family, friends and his pulmonary specialist.
"There was talk of a transplant once I came out of the coma," he said, "but it didn't register. I thought that was pretty remote. I wouldn't accept it.
"I was sure it was [a condition] they could control with a defibrillator, but I didn't understand it could only get worse."
McCaughan went home within 10 days of the transplant and was bowling by March 1 - less than four months after surgery. By the end of the spring, he had returned to league play.
"The first couple of weeks I was a sub," McCaughan said, "but my old teammates wanted me back so I could establish a book average for the next year."
McCaughan, now bowling three times during the week and in a Sunday "coffee" league, knows little about his new heart except that it came from a 19-year-old who lived 1 1/2 hours from Norfolk. Heart transplants have become so common that nearly 3,000 are performed each year, he said.
"My heart is still just 20," he said, "but I guess the other parts of my body are going to start falling apart. I wake up almost every day feeling wonderful, though."
McCaughan said he grew tired Saturday, particularly at the pace others were using to roll three games in slightly more than an hour. However, he rolled a 234 in the final game Saturday afternoon.
"I want to do well," said McCaughan, paired with Richard Gallmeyer of Virginia Beach, who had a cerebral hemorrhage in 1991, "but I don't get upset when I don't. Every day is gravy for me."
by CNB