Bowler's Positive Attitude Throws a Strike at Adversity

Standing up on the podium representing his country and wearing his third-place medal was one of the most awesome and amazing experiences of Nate Weimer’s life.

Weimer, 21, a multiple organ transplant recipient, spent most of his young life very sick and in and out of hospitals.

At 3 months old, he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and by the time he was 9, he was in a wheelchair and using oxygen. When he found bowling, he found a sport that he could not only participate in, he found a sport he grew to love.

Over the summer Weimer made a trip to Göteborg, Sweden for the 2011 World Transplant Games, where he won a bronze medal for the United States. The trip was his first out of the country and he hopes not his only time participating in the transplant games.

“Bowling kind of gave me a goal and something to set my mind on, so it wasn’t just medical mumbo jumbo,” Weimer said.

His trip to Sweden for the games allowed him to meet people from all over the world. He said 52 countries were represented at the games. 

“We had a deep connection already because we went through lifesaving transplants,” he said. “I made lifelong friends and I can’t wait to see them again.”

When he was 9, Weimer had to have a double lung transplant. Cystic fibrosis is a disease that causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and other areas of the body. Prior to his surgery he had been forced to use oxygen and a wheelchair.

“I was a kid who was always sick and always in and out of the hospital,” he said. “I didn’t get to be a normal kid.”

Though he couldn’t participate in sports, his mother, Kristi Griffis, signed Nate and his sister up for a bowling league. He started bowling when he was about 9, he said. 

“I ended up loving it,” he said. 

His goal is to attend the next games in 2013 when they are held in South Africa and see his new friends again.

"I told him to bring home another medal," said Dr. James Gagermeier, Loyola University Medical Center medical director of Pulmonary Medicine, who is providing long-term follow-up care for Weimer's transplanted lungs. "Nathan has a very positive attitude. He has dealt with a lot of adversity with great resilience."

After his double lung transplant, it took about two years for him to recuperate and begin to see the changes in his body, Weimer said. Then in 2006 he needed to have a kidney transplant. The anti-rejection drugs he took had taxed his system and caused kidney failure.

His health is much improved today, though he still gets sick because he is immune e-suppressed, he said. (He takes about 35 pills a day.) But, he can breathe much better now — his lung capacity is at 45 percent — and he enjoys life.

He bowls three to four times a week at the Fox Bowl in Wheaton, he said. And, he works part-time at a UPS store. Bowling is a stress reliever and work allows him some independence.

He works for a family friend who understands that Weimer’s schedule sometimes needs to be flexible. He often becomes sick and can’t work.

Through it all, Weimer has maintained a positive attitude and said that his faith has helped him, along with his family and friends.

“A lot of it is do to my religion, I know there is a plan,” he said. “I live day-to-day bringing a positive force to my day.”