Just one year ago, Dr. Gary Gibbon was a patient with advanced lung cancer who had little hope.
Now, he’s celebrating six months of cancer-free living thanks to a first-in-the-nation transplant procedure performed at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
“I'm honored to be sitting here next to these two distinguished surgeons from Northwestern Medicine who saved my life by performing a double lung and liver transplant when it was determined that there were no other options for me for cancer treatment.”
Dr. Gibbon was a practicing pulmonologist in California when coughing and weight loss led to a chest X-ray,
the discovery of a large mass and a diagnosis of stage 3 lung cancer.
He underwent aggressive treatment with chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation but suffered complications including septic shock and multi-organ failure
That’s when his wife remembered hearing about Northwestern Medicine’s DREAM transplant program for people with advanced disease.
“We did our prelim evaluation, and it was very clear that his liver, his lungs had been completely damaged. But what we found out was he had a concurrent liver failure. He had developed cirrhosis from the complications of the cancer therapies. So not only would he need a double lung transplant to get his cancer treated and his respiratory failure treated, he would have had to have a liver transplant.”
The team was able to modify the program and Dr. Gibbon was transported from California to Northwestern Medicine.
And after 12 days on the transplant waitlist, the surgery was a go.
While his new lungs were being put in, the donor's liver was kept alive for nearly 17 hours using new technology.
“With the advent of machine perfusion, we pump blood at normal temperatures through the organ, and the organ functions outside of the body in a box.
Satish Nadig, MD
It’s been six months now and tests show no signs of cancer in Dr. Gibbon’s body.
He says he’s in awe and feels blessed to be part of the DREAM program.
"I plan to humanize it in a way that you can’t get in any books. And you can’t get in any journals, which I think to most patients will be anxiety relieving.”
