Marking six months since Northwestern Medicine’s first double lung transplant on a patient with terminal lung cancer, the recovering patient and doctors discuss future possibilities.
"My guardian angels, everybody, even the nurses here. They did a hell of a job. They kept me alive," said Albert Khoury, the transplant paitent.
Khoury thanked everyone at Northwestern Medicine involved in his successful double lung transplant.
Becoming the hospital’s first terminal lung cancer patient to be approved for the procedure, Dr. Ankit Bharat chief of thoracic surgery told reporters he will not be the last.
"We have now convinced ourselves that it's possible to offer transplant in a cancer setting," said Bharat.
Dr. Barhat said this type of surgery has only been done a handful of times globally, and even less times has it been done in cancer patients.
Khoury was not a smoker and had originally thought he was coming down with COVID. Stage 1 lung cancer quickly progressed to stage 4. He was even told by doctors it was time to consider hospice, before Northwestern doctors told him, this is something we think we can do.
Doctors now say there are no signs of cancer in Khoury’s body.
"Just gotta enjoy life. That's it. Every day I see the sunlight, I'm the happiest man in the world," Khoury said.