Living with, and fighting, Cystic fibrosis

“I had actually been thinking about writing a book for probably about 10 years — and then I had a double lung transplant seven years ago,” recalled Richard Keane, author of the upcoming memoir “Fighting with Crib Gloves.” “I actually wrote the outline for the book five or six days after the transplant.”

Keane, 57, a Rockville Centre resident for 21 years, 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. The memoir, published by Oklahoma’s Tate Publishing, chronicles Keane’s years of fighting the disease and the many complications that come with it.

“I’ve had a lot of medical issues aside from CF, all stemming from CF, but there are different strains of the disease,” he said. “I was actually quarantined for seven of the first 10 months of my life with issues, you know — measles, mumps, not digesting. When I was finally diagnosed in 1956, children who were diagnosed didn’t survive more than a year or so.”

Keane, a Rockville Centre resident for 21 years, wasn’t the only member of his family affected by the illness — the second of nine children, he was just one of three with CF. One of his sisters, Valerie, died of its complications in 1976, at age 17. Another sister, Jennifer, is now 45, and while she had a lesser strain growing up, the illness has begun to catch up with her.

Current science has no answer to cystic fibrosis, and the average life expectancy of a CF patient is 36 years. In a way, Keane has been lucky — he has been featured in a number of medical journals as one of the world’s longest-surviving CF patients. The illness tends to predispose its sufferers to other medical issues, including osteoporosis, high blood pressure, diabetes and pancreatitis. Keane has survived them, too.

The title of his memoir is apt. “Fighting with Crib Gloves” reflects the urgency of the disease, and refers to an experience he had as a child undergoing treatment. When he stopped breathing one morning, his pediatrician resuscitated him, and hung a pair of boxing gloves over his crib, calling him a fighter.