CLEVELAND — Receiving an organ transplant can be tricky — blood and tissue types have to match, and the size of the donor, recipient and their organs can also be a factor.

Someone is added to the transplant waiting list every eight minutes, according to Donate Life America. Most need a kidney. Those needing lungs are limited by an extra criterion: size.

“That’s gross. I’m not giving my organs to anybody,” said Craig Mason mocking the way he used to think.

He said that’s how he felt before learning he was the one in need of a transplant, both lungs and his liver.

“I was coming up our basement steps. We’re talking like 12 steps, and halfway up, I felt short of breath. I had to stop,” Mason said. That was in December of 2021.

Four months later, Mason was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He began using oxygen tanks everywhere he went and was given three to five years to live if he didn’t receive a double-lung transplant.

“There's still over 100,000 folks waiting on that list. And unfortunately, it's hard to catch up with the list because as someone receives that lifesaving gift, someone's added to that, to that list,” said Heather Mekesa of LifeBanc.

Additional testing showed Mason also needed a new liver, but getting the organs wasn’t Mason’s only concern. They also needed to be the right ones. Cleveland Clinic lists Mason at 4-foot-11-inches tall.

“I said, 'can’t you just make it 5 feet,'" Mason said with a laugh.

“When it comes to height for lungs, that is one organ in particular that you do have to be aware of the size because someone who is 4-foot-11 is not necessarily going be able to receive lungs from someone who's 6 feet tall or taller than that because they will not fit. And it's vice versa, for someone who's extremely tall, they wouldn't be able to utilize lungs from someone that is very small,” Mekesa said.

Mason needed to be admitted due to lack of oxygen toward the end of 2024. The clock was ticking. He said the hardest part of his journey was waiting for the phone call that organs were available.

“But that also means you’re praying for someone else to make it possible for you to do so in death. That was difficult,” he said.

On Jan. 29, after three months in the ICU, the call came. Mason was in surgery for over 14 hours. He was discharged March 3 and breathing on his own.

“It’s like being given a second lease on life, a miracle,” Mason said, holding back tears.

As for how he feels now about being a donor:

“I eventually came to realize: You know what? You’re not going to need them. Somebody can live because you can’t take ‘em with you,” he said.

Across the country, 100,000 people are on the transplant waiting list. You can register to become a donor by going to lifebanc.org. You can also register through your local BMV, or through the national donor registry.