CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine have successfully performed a double-lung transplant on a patient with COVID- and cancer-damaged lungs.
In February 2020, 56-year-old Chicago police captain Arthur “Art” Gillespie was hospitalized for COVID.
“Doctors came and told me that there was something that they had observed on the right lung that got their attention and required some follow up,” he said. “So that later turned out to be stage 1 cancer.”
Dr. Ankit Bharat, a thoracic Surgeon at Northwestern Medicine, said the lung cancer required the removal of part of one of Gillespie's lungs, which had impaired his breathing. The rest of his lungs were left severely damaged from COVID.
“Historically, that was not something you could treat with any medical therapy, and certainly not with lung transplant,” Bharat said.
Surgeons, though, got to work through a first-of-its-kind double-lung transplant program.
Now in recovery, Gillespie, spoke during National Police Week and said he hopes his story resonates with fellow officers to prioritize their health.
“When you're a public servant, you're accustomed to putting others before yourself and others' needs before your own,” he said. “And that has its place, that has its time. But we also have to be just as equally, I would say, proactive in prioritizing our own health.”
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