Steve fixes his mask as he tries to take a short walk around his neighborhood. Since his surgery, Steve is happy he no longer has to use a scooter to get around and do basic things like shopping and going to work.

Steve Bailey fixes his mask as he tries to take a short walk around his neighborhood. Steve has a rare disease known as Alpha-1, which, over time, deteriorates your lung function and makes it impossible to breathe. "Its like breathing though a straw," said Steve of his current lung function.

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For the past four years of his life, Steve has lived while slowly dying. Every where he goes, he  brings his oxygen tank in tow. As he awaits his transplant, Steve's lung function is nearing 20percent, a level that they believe won't last through the upcoming season if a donor match isn't found. 

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Savannah Bailey, daughter of Steve and Merity, looks for a good vein for Steve's weekly infusion. After learning of her dad's illness, Savannah became a phlebotomist to help her dad with his infusions. “Everything just changed and you family becomes your priority,” Savannah said. “You give up going out with your friends tonight because you want to spend time with your family. You take time more seriously.”

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Steve struggles while lifting 7.5lb weighs, a task he never thought would be hard for him. Steve attends physical therapy at the pulmonary rehab center at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.

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Savannah Bailey haps administer her fathers weekly infusion in their home. Her hope is that it becomes easier for her dad to have less hospital officials and nurses at every week since she became a phlebotomist and administers his infusions for him. 

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As the nurse comes to take away her father for surgery, Savannah cries in her mothers arms. The transplant would last nearly eight hours in the operation room.  

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 Steve lays in a hospital bed before receiving his double lung transplant, Merity delicately moves his cannula as he moves a piece of her hair. "You're leaking again," jokes Steve to Merity as she tries to hide her tears.  

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Steve Bailey lowers his head in prayer as he is given a mormon blessing, hours before his double lung transplant. 

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Steve places his finger on Savannah's hand moments before he is taken back for surgery. 

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As Steve is carted off to surgery, he signals the "okay" sign to his family on the other side of the doors. The surgery would last around 8 hours, with the family receiving updates every hour in the waiting room from the hospital telephone. “In the moment, they take him away, you have to have all the trust in the world in that team,” Merity said.

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Jake Bailey, Steve and Merity's son, sleeps in the hospital waiting room waiting for the operating room telephone to ring every hour for an update on his father.  

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Merity looks up at Steve from the side of the hospital bed, a place she had become familiar with over the last few years. 

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Steve receives a shot in the stomach while he recovers in the hospital. After the surgery Steve spent nearly a week in the ICU before going to the general patient floor. 

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After his surgery, Steve recovers in the hospital as he learns to do basic things again while using his new lungs. He has stitches on his chest left over from the surgery and bandages covering his wounds from tubes he had in the intensive care unit. 

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Steve and his wife Merity share a moment as Merity helps her husband into the drivers seat of his vehicle. 

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Steve, who is a conceal and carry permit instructor, helps show Merity how to properly hold a rifle. Though Steve can no longer fire weapons due to his transplant  he wants to spend as much time as possible with his family given his new lease on life. 

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Merity laughs as Steve jokes about potato salad at their dinner time. “She (Merity) has taken on both roles over the past I don’t know how long,” he said. “Progressively, the family has had to pick up more of my responsibilities. Then they had to start taking care of me as well. So not only are they doing double duty, they are taking care of me.”

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Merity looks over her book of medications as she does every week to refill Steve's pill trays. "It's so hard knowing that if I do something wrong he could die," she said.

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While the transplant did help significantly with lung function, it wasn’t a cure for everything. In the days after the transplant, he had a series of seven strokes and faced a bout of rejection with the lungs. 

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Steve covers his eyes after being so quickly back in the hospital with his bout of rejection. “With most of these things that surface, the rejection or whatever is going on with me, I just kind of say they happen, next chapter and I deal with that,” he said

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Steve looks off as he exits the hospital. The family knows there is no cure for Alpha-1 and still see its effects on Steve. They are cautiously planning ahead.“I was ready for him to die. … Now I have to wonder when,” Merity said. 

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