“Sweet Home Chicago”: A song of survival for New York lung cancer patient who received a life-saving double-lung transplant

Playing guitar for his doctors

Chicago, IL – August 5, 2025 – For 28-year-old Dean Comstock of Syracuse, New York, music has always played an important role in his life. When he started playing guitar at the age of nine, one of his favorite songs was “Sweet Home Chicago,” but little did he know, 19 years later, that song would hold a whole new meaning.

In October 2023, Dean developed a cough that wouldn’t go away. At first, his doctors thought it was pneumonia or acid reflux, but on August 8, 2024, Dean was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. As an active community member who worked three jobs and didn’t have a history of smoking, Dean was shocked. He started chemotherapy, but his breathing got worse, and he soon had to rely on supplemental oxygen. Dean’s cancer was terminal, and he was quickly running out of options.  

That’s when his mom, Jill Comstock, who happened to receive a lung transplant in 2021 for pulmonary fibrosis at another hospital, asked her medical team if a lung transplant could be a possibility for him at their site. Her doctors told the family only one health system in the United States was known to perform lung transplants on patients with terminal lung cancer, and Dean would need to travel to Northwestern Medicine in Chicago to participate in a clinical trial known as DREAM, where select patients with advanced lung cancers receive double-lung transplants.

This March, Dean arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he underwent a transplant evaluation and met with Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.

By May 8, Dean was listed for a double-lung transplant and eight days later, he received his new lungs on May 16.

Dean and McKayla - before cancer

Making beautiful music together

One month later, on June 27, Dean celebrated his five-year wedding anniversary with his wife, McKayla Comstock, who is a music teacher at Jordan-Elbridge High School in Jordan, New York. In fact, the two first met in the same music room where McKayla now teaches, and they often play music together at weddings and special events.

Two months after his transplant, Dean and McKayla played for an audience in Chicago they’ll never forget – Dr. Bharat and members of the lung transplant team who helped save Dean’s life. Dean strummed his guitar in a clinic exam room as McKayla sang the lyrics to “Sweet Home Chicago.”

“The song has always been one of my favorite songs to play, and I really never knew why since I’m from Syracuse, New York, but now that a team of surgeons, doctors and nurses in Chicago saved my life, the city and the song will always hold a special place in my heart,” said Dean. “This is where miracles happen; right here at Northwestern Medicine.”  

Dean will remain in Chicago for one-year post-transplant so he can be near his medical team, and he’s looking forward to the future.

“I’m so thankful to be able to breathe fresh air every day. I’m thankful for my donor, my community, my family and everyone who has helped me along the way. I’m going to smell the roses a little bit more and enjoy life. Once you go through something like this, you learn how precious life really is,” said Dean.

Dean and McKayla at Northwestern Medicine

Lung cancer cases on the rise in young people

Cancers of the lung are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States with more people dying of lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined, and doctors have noticed a startling new trend.

“On a daily basis, we’re seeing more young people being diagnosed with lung cancer,” said Dr. Bharat. “Conventionally, lung cancer has been associated with smoking and older age. While smoking certainly increases your chances of developing lung cancer, we’re seeing an explosion of lung cancer cases in patients who have never smoked or had limited smoking exposure – like Dean.”

The Canning Thoracic Institute has launched a universal lung cancer screening program where patients who meet certain criteria can get screened for lung cancer, even if their insurance doesn’t provide financial support. The goal is to share the findings with the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force and urge them to let all patients beyond a certain age receive an annual lung cancer screening.

“If lung cancer is causing the most deaths in this country, impacting smokers and nonsmokers, we need a universal screening program just like we have for breast and colon cancer,” added Dr. Bharat.

Playing guitar while hospitalized

About the DREAM Program

To date, Northwestern Medicine surgeons have performed more than 50 lung transplants for patients with advanced lung cancers.

Using lessons learned from pioneering COVID-19 lung transplantation in the U.S., they developed the novel surgical technique to clear the cancer during surgery while minimizing the risk of spread that has plagued prior such attempts at other hospitals.

“We’re very proud of the DREAM Program. This innovative technique involves putting the patient on full heart and lung bypass, delicately taking both cancer-ridden lungs out at the same time along with the lymph nodes, washing the airways and the chest cavity to clear the cancer, and then putting new lungs in,” said Dr. Bharat. “These patients can have billions of cancer cells in the lungs, so we must be extremely meticulous to not let a single cell spill into the patient’s chest cavity or blood stream. We believe this technique can help reduce the risk of recurrence, which we learned through our experience with pioneering COVID-19 lung transplants in 2020.”

Since Northwestern Medicine’s Lung Transplant Program first started in 2014, they’ve performed more than 600 lung transplant procedures for patients with end-stage lung diseases such as COVID, lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and more. In 2024, Northwestern Medicine had the shortest wait time for a lung transplant in the U.S. with a median wait time of four days. They also performed 148 lung transplants, the most performed at any transplant center in the U.S. for 2024.

Patients interested in being evaluated for a lung transplant can contact the 24-hour referral line at 312.695.5864 or 844.639.5864. For more information about the Lung Transplant Program or lung cancer screenings, visit nm.org.