Fred Francis and his loyal Shadow
West Virginia engineer Fred Francis recently underwent a heart transplant at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. This was about a year after he had five-way bypass surgery to correct a genetic heart condition in February 2016.
But “so far things are going very well,” Francis said in an email. “I am getting stronger day by day and hope to return to work in the near future.” He is president of Xenirad Broadcast Engineering, which he founded in 2006.
He has previously worked as station engineer for WSAZ(TV) and chief engineer for Sinclair Broadcasting’s WVAH(TV). Francis began his career in the U.S. Marine Corps as a ground radio repairman, which he says laid the groundwork for him to transition to two-way radio, paging and then broadcasting. He has been a contract engineer for radio for nearly 25 years.
In part because Francis has been unable to work while he has been recovering and needed to stay in the Lexington area for an extended period of time, his wife set up a GoFundMe campaign to help pay his medical costs, upon recommendation of the hospital. If you’d like to help or learn more about Francis’ story, visit his GoFundMe page.
“Not only is it very difficult for people to get an organ donation when they need one, not enough people are signed up to be organ donors, and when they die their organs are wasted,” Francis explained, “and the operation and medicine afterward is very expensive.”
— Radio
