CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Kentucky father can now breathe easier after an innovative double-lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine.
The operation marked a first for Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute surgeons.
The available pair of donor lungs were, unfortunately, not immediately suitable for transplant. Surgeons had to use clot-busting drugs to repair the donor lungs outside of the human body — using so-called "lungs in a box" technology — before the transplant.
It was a move that saved the life of 63-year-old Keith Zafren, of Lexington, Ky., who had terminal lung cancer.
He told Northwestern Medicine: "I made it. I'm on the other side. I felt my wife's hand in mine. I could breathe without oxygen, and I realized, 'OK, we're through it.'"
The former pastor and the father of three was the sixth patient to receive a double lung transplant through a first-of-its-kind clinical program at Northwestern Medicine called "Double Lung Replacement and Multidisciplinary Care."
"Keith's transplant demonstrates how far we can push our technologies to help patients, including some patients with terminal lung cancer whose disease is rapidly progressing," said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Canning Thoracic Institute. "Given the urgency of Keith's situation, we took a set of lungs that would not have been usable in normal circumstances."
Eight months after surgery, Zaffren's new lungs are working well, and he has not required any further cancer therapy.
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