A lifelong battle

Baldwin native, now 57, discusses struggle with cystic fibrosis

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When Richie Keane was born, doctors didn’t think he would live more than a year. But he celebrated his first birthday, despite the initial gloomy prognosis, and has celebrated 56 more since.

Keane, who graduated from Baldwin High School in 1974 and now lives in Rockville Centre with his wife, MaryAnne, was born with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disorder that causes abnormally thick mucus and can lead to blockage of the pancreatic ducts, intestines and bronchi, as well as respiratory infection. Although treatments and medications have improved over Keane’s lifetime, there is still no cure for CF. The average life expectancy of a CF patient is about 40 years, and it has risen significantly since Keane was born in 1956.

In 2007, he needed a double lung transplant. As he was sitting in his hospital bed five or six days after the procedure, he began writing down notes about his life. Those notes eventually turned into a memoir, “Fighting with Crib Gloves,” which was released on April 1. The Baldwin native is not making any money from sales of the book. Instead Keane is donating all of the proceeds to organizations like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Boomer Esiason Foundation.

He said he wrote the book to show young children with CF, and their parents, that perseverance is key. Despite obstacles — and Keane has faced many — he was always motivated to live his life. “Everybody has their own way to deal with issues,” he said. “I used anger toward the disease, not toward anybody else, and that motivated me to basically say, ‘F--- you, I’ll decide when I go.’”

Shortly after he was born, Keane was quarantined in what is now South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside for seven months, battling measles, mumps, chickenpox and other illnesses, all because CF weakened his immune system. He stopped breathing one afternoon, but the medical staff quickly resuscitated him. Afterward, Dr. Sheldon Miller hung little black boxing gloves on the corner of Keane’s crib and told his mother that he was a fighter. That inspired his memoir’s title.

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