Doctors Perform Double Lung Transplant and Save Cancer Patient
US doctors announced Thursday they had successfully performed a double lung transplant on a patient with terminal lung cancer, giving new hope to others who also are in advanced stages of the deadly d
Albert Khoury, a 54-year-old, was working as a cement finisher for the city of Chicago. He began to experience back pain, sneezing, chills, cough and mucus in early 2020. At first, he assumed it was Covid, but called his doctor when he coughed up blood. They discovered stage 1 lung cancer, but due to the Covid-19 surge, he couldn't begin treatment right away.
Khoury was shocked as he does not smoke. By July 2020, his cancer progressed to stage 2, and, despite several rounds of chemotherapy, kept growing to stage 3 and stage 4. He was told there was no chance of survival, but his sister, who had heard about the lung transplants at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, urged him to get another opinion.
Khoury came under the care of an oncologist Young Chae at Northwestern who wanted first to try other cancer-fighting treatments. But his health kept declining. He ended up in the ICU with pneumonia and sepsis.
That’s when Dr Ankit Bharat got involved. He was the first to perform a double lung transplant on a woman in 2020. Generally, when a person has stage 4 lung cancer, it is very difficult to perform a lung transplant as cancer has already spread across the body. Because Albert's cancer was confined only to his chest, they were confident. On 25 September 2021, after two weeks of waiting, a match for Albert's lungs was found. The team had to remove "trillions" of cancer cells all over his lungs within six-hours. They had to be careful not to spill any cancer into his chest cavity or bloodstream. The doctors removed his old lungs and all cancer as well. They put the new lungs in his body and the surgery was successful.
After the surgery, Khoury had to take a lot of care. He was on many medicines. Sometimes after transplant surgery, the body rejects the organ. Chances of organ rejection were very high. He had to wear oxygen masks to support his breathing. Yesterday the doctors announced that Khoury is now leading a normal life and is able to work and go to the gym, without requiring breathing support. The lung transplant was a big success. Khoury said, ‘My life went from zero to 100 because of these doctors. You didn't see this smile on my face for over a year, but now I can't stop smiling.’ Doctors around the world are shocked and people with similar lung problems now have hope of a lung transplant.
