NEW BERLIN, Pa. - There was a one-of-a-kind welcome home party in Union County on Wednesday night.
A man from New Berlin just had a lung transplant surgery in North Carolina. He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, but with a lot of help from his community, he was able to get the perfect match for a new set of lungs.
Logan Roush is 29 years old, but never in his life has he been able to breathe this easily.
When he was just three months old, Logan was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, making it hard for him to speak without coughing.
Now, a new pair of lungs has given him a new lease on life.
"Breathing for the first time was just very, very different. What was going on in my mind was simply, how do I breathe again," Logan Roush said.
"When they took the breathing tube out and he just started talking and we looked at each other and it was like, he's not coughing," Logan's father Sean Roush said.
Logan's family and friends in New Berlin threw him a welcome home party after he spent the past seven months at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina. He was waiting for the perfect pair of lungs, and that's exactly what he got in February.
Logan has a gene in his blood which is extremely rare. He ended up with lungs from a donor who was an exact match.
"It was a perfect fit, the doctor said it was a perfect fit. The lungs were CMV negative, so it was just meant to be," Sean Roush said.
Through Lungs for Logan, his family was able to raise around $100,000 for Logan's surgery bill in just 10 months from his surrounding community and throughout the country.
"They have all stepped up. They did fundraisers on their own from Texas and California and Michigan," Logan Roush said.
If Logan's family could say one thing to the lung donor's family, it would be this.
"I would just like to say thank you. I hope that they would be proud of who their loved one saved and just so they know that they won't go wasted," Logan's mother Kelly Roush said.
Logan said this new pair of lungs has invigorated him to continue raising money to help others with cystic fibrosis.