Community News

Dr. Michael Konstan

CLEVELAND — Akron native Dr. Michael Konstan got to experience what it might feel like to hit a game-winning home run recently.

Konstan, a 1974 graduate of Firestone High School who was raised in West Akron, was among 30 people nationwide to be honored for going above and beyond in serving their community in the All-Stars Among Us campaign sponsored by Major League Baseball (MLB).

One person was selected from each of the cities that is home to an MLB team. Konstan is a resident of Bratenahl and was chosen to represent the Cleveland Indians.

Konstan was nominated by his niece, West Akron resident Emily Dennis, for his contributions to the fight against cystic fibrosis (CF). He is currently director of the Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Development Center at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine and co-medical director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

All-Stars Among Us campaign winners — including West Akron native Dr. Michael Konstan — are shown standing in a group in front of the large star. They were honored during the pregame show at the MLB All-Star Game July 14 in St. Louis.

Photos courtesy of Dr. Michael Konstan

“At first I said, ‘Now what are you getting me mixed up into?’” Konstan said he said to Dennis. “I hadn’t heard of this program. I was surprised because I’m pretty busy doing my work here. She nominated me, then I heard I was among the finalists.”

Dennis is in graduate school at Ursuline College studying art therapy and counseling. She said she is doing research on CF patients and was amazed to see how important her uncle’s work has been.

“When I started my research, I realized his impact on the field and what he has done,” she said. “He has dedicated his life to this and he doesn’t want any recognition. It was important for me to try to honor him.”

Konstan and two other finalists from Cleveland were honored at an Indians game earlier this season, and then Konstan was notified that he was chosen as the All-Star at the end of June.

“It’s a bit humbling,” Konstan said of the honor. “A lot of people do lots of things for other people. Lots of what I do I regard as my work, but most people who know me say I go beyond. I do try to spend a lot of time with my patients, and I have devoted my life to curing this disease.”

Konstan and the other All-Stars were honored during the pregame show at the MLB All-Star Game, which took place July 14 in St. Louis. President Barack Obama was also at the game to throw out the first pitch.

“We went out onto the field and were recognized in front of the 50,000-plus fans and those watching on TV,” he said. “There was a tribute by President Obama and the four living former presidents, who talked about volunteerism and working to help other people.”

The finalists were supposed to meet with Obama, but that didn’t happen. Collectively, they requested a meeting with him in the future, Konstan said.

“We autographed an All-Star Game ball and sent him a letter,” Konstan said. “We’ve asked to meet him at the White House so we can explain our programs to him. We’re still waiting to hear from him.”

Konstan, who attended Fairlawn Elementary School (now the Judith A. Resnik Community Learning Center) and Litchfield Middle School before Firestone, is the son of Billie and Dr. Louis Konstan, who live in Fairlawn Heights. His father was a dentist, and that was the field Konstan said he planned to enter as well until he volunteered as a CWRU student at Rainbow.

“After volunteering at Rainbow and working with children with cystic fibrosis, that captured me, and I decided I wanted to do something with that,” he said. “At the time in the mid-’70s, many of those patients were not surviving past their teenage years.”

He said he was completely unaware of the disease until his volunteer experience.

“I had never really even heard of the disease,” he said. “I was so taken aback by how much courage those young children had who faced the disease.”

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, CF is a life-threatening genetic disease that causes mucus to build up and clog some of the organs in the body, particularly the lungs and pancreas, impairing lung function and digestion. When mucus clogs the lungs, it can make breathing very difficult. The thick mucus also causes bacteria to get stuck in the airways, which causes inflammation and infections that lead to progressive lung damage.

Today Konstan does see patients, but a lot of his work is in research to develop new therapies for CF.

He said his work has helped lead to longer lives for the young people who have CF.

“The life expectancy when I started in the mid-’70s was around age 17, so almost all of our patients were dying in childhood,” Konstan said. “Now expectancy has surpassed 37 years. It has doubled in the time I’ve been involved in cystic fibrosis.”

Konstan, who is single, said he’s grateful for the attention his research may have received as a result of his All-Star honor, but he knows he has more work ahead of him.

“I’ve devoted my life to this and don’t do much else,” he said.