CHICAGO, IL - July 23, 2026 – For Preeyanuch Chanwongwanit, a busy mom of four from New Berlin, Wisconsin, life came to a screeching halt in 2019 when she was diagnosed with renal failure. After school activities with her children were quickly replaced by a demanding dialysis schedule, as the family awaited a life-saving kidney transplant. But when two transplant surgeries at another health system failed, the 46-year-old was faced with yet another daunting diagnosis – an allergy to general anesthesia.

“This is one of the most bizarre stories I’ve ever heard,” said Vinayak Rohan, MD, a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. “This patient had two previous attempts at kidney transplantation at another health system but went into cardiac arrest on the table before the surgeries could even start.”

The discovery of Chanwongwanit’s allergy by her care team in Wisconsin meant a third attempt at a kidney transplant would be complicated, as she could not undergo general anesthesia. Out of options, her care team reached out to Northwestern Medicine’s AWAKE Program (Accelerated Surgery Without General Anesthesia in Kidney Transplantation), which offers select patients a chance to remain awake through their kidney transplant.

Instead of using general anesthesia, a spinal anesthesia shot is given to the patient, similar to what’s used during a cesarean section for childbirth. It involves injecting a local anesthetic into spinal fluid and numbing the lower half of the body while allowing the patient to remain conscious.

“The AWAKE Program was built for patients like Preeyanuch. When her medical team in Wisconsin called us, they said, ‘we know Northwestern Medicine is the only place that can help her,’” said Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, transplant surgeon and director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center. “To date, we’ve performed 25 kidney transplant procedures where the patient is fully awake, and Preeyanuch is our first patient from Wisconsin. The AWAKE Program represents our commitment to continuously reimagine what is possible in transplant care. We’re incredibly proud to offer this innovation and deeply grateful for the opportunity to help patients like Preeyanuch.”

Redefining what is possible for patient care

After her two unsuccessful transplant attempts at another health system, Chanwongwanit was running low on hope. But after meeting Dr. Rohan and his team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chanwongwanit’s husband, Arthur Lee, said everything changed.

“Dr. Rohan explained to us how the surgery would work, and we immediately felt more comfortable knowing general anesthesia wasn’t part of the plan,” said Lee. “As a husband and father, you want to see your loved one happy and healthy, and the AWAKE Program gave us confidence from day one. What could have been another stressful experience turned into one filled with reassurance.”

On May 25, Chanwongwanit received a kidney from a deceased donor at Northwestern Memorial, and despite giving birth to four children, Chanwongwanit had her first experience with an epidural.

“All four of my deliveries were natural births, so this was my first time having an epidural,” said Chanwongwanit. “I was completely alert on the operating room table, went through the transplant without any complications, didn’t experience any pain, and went home 36 hours after surgery. I felt supported by my care team every step of the way and would highly recommend the AWAKE Program to other patients.”

“At Northwestern Medicine, we’re always looking for new ways to make transplantation safer, more accessible and less burdensome for patients. Through our AWAKE Program, we’re helping people experience a smoother recovery while delivering the same world-class transplant care,” said Dr. Rohan. “Our team is honored to be part of these extraordinary journeys and to help patients achieve the best possible outcomes as they begin a new chapter in their lives.”

Back to being mom

Two months after the transplant, Chanwongwanit’s new kidney is functioning as it should, allowing her to get back to the things that matter most. The children’s music and sport schedules have begun to replace dialysis, allowing the family to finally begin their long-awaited fresh start.

“Instead of living life from the sidelines, I can now be there for my four children every day – celebrating milestones and making memories. I also miss my parents who live in Thailand, so I’d love to visit them soon,” said Chanwongwanit. “I’m so grateful to my organ donor and the incredible team at Northwestern Medicine for giving me a second chance at life. With my new kidney, anything is possible.”

About the AWAKE Program

Northwestern Medicine surgeons performed the first AWAKE kidney transplant in June 2024, and to date, 25 patients have received kidney transplants without general anesthesia.

The program is designed to give patients who are not candidates for general anesthesia an alternative for undergoing the surgical procedure, while also decreasing the length of their hospital stay (one day compared to 4-7 days with general anesthesia).

For more information on the AWAKE Program at Northwestern Medicine, visit nm.org.

Chicago, IL – July 14, 2026 – Northwestern Medicine surgeons have performed the first known quadruple-organ transplant involving retransplanted lungs in the United States. Elizabeth Wehrle, a 36-year-old mother from Montezuma, Iowa, received two donor lungs for a second time, along with a liver and kidney, after complications from cystic fibrosis and chronic rejection of her first lung transplant left her critically ill. The groundbreaking surgery happened at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and involved a multidisciplinary transplant team uniquely equipped to manage one of the most complex surgical cases ever undertaken. 

KEY NOTES AT A GLANCE

• According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), Wehrle is the first patient in the United States to receive a quadruple-organ transplant involving retransplanted lungs.
• According to SRTR, Northwestern Medicine is the sixth transplant program in the U.S. to perform a quadruple-organ transplant, but the first to perform one with retransplanted lungs.
• To date, only seven quadruple-organ transplant procedures have been performed in the U.S. (one transplant center performed two).
• Redo lung transplantation is among the most technically challenging procedures in medicine. Previous surgeries create extensive scar tissue, obscuring normal anatomy and making operations significantly more complex.

“Retransplanting lungs is extraordinarily difficult because prior surgery can leave the chest densely scarred and the normal anatomy severely distorted,” said Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. “Adding a liver and kidney transplant placed Elizabeth’s case in a category few transplant programs ever encounter. Her outcome reflects not just surgical skill, but an entire system built to care for the most complex patients. Elizabeth’s initial double-lung transplant from 2017 left extensive scar tissue which severely distorted the normal anatomy of her chest. When you make an incision, the risk of bleeding and injury to nearby organs and blood vessels increases, and with four organs involved, there’s an even greater risk of organ rejection and serious infection.” 

“Every transplant case is unique, but Elizabeth’s case was extremely rare and difficult,” said Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, transplant surgeon and director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center. “This operation worked because the thoracic, abdominal transplant, anesthesia, intensive care unit, perfusion and nursing teams functioned as one coordinated team. Because we all worked so well together, the surgical implantation was completed in approximately eight hours. It truly highlights why Northwestern Medicine’s expertise can take on some of the most complex transplant cases in the world.”

Rare lung rejection presents extraordinary challenge

 Wehrle, a patient with cystic fibrosis, previously underwent a double-lung transplant in 2017 at another health system and had regained her quality of life before getting sick in January and eventually being diagnosed with a severe form of chronic rejection in late February. While chronic rejection is common in lung transplant patients, Wehrle’s case was especially rare and life-threatening.

“Unfortunately, she developed a rare form of rejection called restrictive allograft syndrome (RAS) which is often fatal and so high-risk that many transplant centers wouldn’t consider repeat lung transplantation,” said Dr. Bharat. 

As physicians evaluated Wehrle’s condition, they discovered additional organ failure caused by cystic fibrosis complications – she would also need a liver and kidney transplant. By the time Wehrle’s medical team in Iowa referred her to Northwestern Medicine, she had progressive respiratory failure and required both a ventilator and life support machine known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). 

“Even though a redo double-lung transplant plus a liver and kidney transplant had not been identified in U.S. registry data, we thought we could help Elizabeth because of our experience with some of the most challenging transplant cases and the multidisciplinary systems we’ve built at Northwestern Medicine to care for these patients,” said Dr. Bharat.    

Timing and coordination for transplantation 

On March 17, Wehrle was admitted to the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit at Northwestern Memorial and was listed for a quadruple-organ transplant on March 19. Three days later, she received word that four organs were available. Thoracic surgeons started on the double-lung retransplant the evening of March 22, and abdominal surgeons followed in the early morning hours of March 23 with the liver and kidney transplant. 

To overcome the challenges associated with prolonged transplant surgeries, Northwestern Medicine used advanced machine perfusion technology to preserve donor organs outside the body, giving surgeons more time than traditional cold storage alone. This approach allowed the thoracic team to focus on the complex lung retransplantation while the liver and kidney remained safely supported. The surgery required extensive preparation and precise choreography.

“The liver and kidney were on a machine perfusion pump, which was fantastic because it allowed the lung team to take their time and make sure the lungs went in safely without being on the clock for the abdominal organs,” said Dr. Nadig. “When the abdominal organs went in and blood flow was restored, they began functioning straight away.”

"The whole operation had to be very closely coordinated, with so many team members and two different teams working in extremely close collaboration to make sure there was no single misstep," said Chitaru Kurihara, MD, a thoracic surgeon and surgical director of the Lung Transplant Program at the Canning Thoracic Institute. “If one surgeon had tried to do this as a single 20-hour operation, that would have been too much stress on a critically ill patient. By separating it out this way, we were able to achieve the outcome we hoped for in only eight hours.”

Life after a historic transplant 

For Wehrle, the historic surgery represented an opportunity to return to the life she had built with her family after her first transplant in 2017.

"Life was great after my first double-lung transplant," Wehrle said. "I was a stay-at-home mom, I homeschooled my son, and I was busy with all his activities. I had my life back. But as my health deteriorated, simple daily tasks became overwhelming. There were days that I couldn't get myself dressed because I just couldn't breathe.”

Following the transplant in March, Wehrle quickly recovered, with her new lungs, liver and kidney functioning well. In less than three weeks, she was discharged from Northwestern Memorial and began rebuilding her strength. She’s currently walking 3-4 miles per day and doing light weightlifting.

“Before surgery, there was so much tightness in my chest and I couldn’t breathe. Almost immediately after transplant, I felt like a new person,” said Wehrle. “Without my four new organs, I know I wouldn’t be here today.”

Wehrle will return home to Iowa on July 17 and be reunited with her 11-year-old son, Landen, who got to experience a Chicago summer when he visited his mom in June. The scars from Wehrle’s surgeries are a visible reminder of her journey and she doesn’t take them for granted. 

"I don't hide my scars," Wehrle said. “I’m looking forward to going to the swimming pool this summer and showing off my battle scars. I earned them. They saved my life.”

"I'm so proud of this case because of the way our teams came together to anticipate every challenge and be prepared for it," said Dr. Bharat. "There was a tremendous amount of passion to help Elizabeth. The thought of reuniting her with her child and giving her a new lease on life makes all of us incredibly happy."

The procedure was made possible by the generosity of an organ donor and donor family.

More information on lung transplantation 

Since Northwestern Medicine’s Lung Transplant Program first started in 2014, they’ve performed more than 700 lung transplant procedures for patients with end-stage lung diseases such as COVID, cancer, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and more. Northwestern Medicine has one of the shortest wait times for a lung transplant in the U.S. with a median wait time of three days. 

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 organ transplantation at Northwestern Medicine, visit nm.org. 

“Age is just a number,” said Mohammed Javeed Ansari, MD, a nephrologist at Northwestern Medicine. “What we’re looking at is the functional status of the recipient. If someone is living their life at 87, just like a 67-year-old would, they deserve the opportunity to receive a life-saving transplant.”

Doctor Ansari presented Perry’s case to his colleagues at the Northwestern Medicine Organ Transplant Center and fiercely advocated for her treatment. Perry was accepted, and on March 6, Vinayak Rohan, MD, a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Medicine, performed her surgery. 

“When Sheila was presented to the committee, everybody was taken aback a little bit,” said Dr. Rohan. “It's not every day that we see an 87-year-old looking for a transplant. But after reviewing her health history and seeing how fit she was, we were confident we could do this successfully.”

Transplants in an aging population

By 2050, the number of people over 80 years old is expected to triple. Advancements in healthcare mean people are living longer, and the number of older adults is growing worldwide. As the population ages, Dr. Rohan expects organ transplants in older patients will become more common. 

“Surgery and immunosuppression are harder on the body of an older patient, so we’ll have to adapt,” said Dr. Rohan. “We can adjust immunosuppression, cut surgery times, and perform awake kidney transplants without the risks of general anesthesia. There are things we can do to achieve good outcomes and meet the needs of this population.”

The proportion of older donors is also increasing, which may improve wait times for older recipients.  

“Even donors in their 70’s are being considered,” said Dr. Ansari. “From a biologic perspective and a physical perspective, age should not be a contraindication for transplantation.”

Thriving at 87

Just three months after surgery, Perry is back to her normal life. She lives alone by choice, walks several miles each day, and spends most of her time immersed in the arts. Whether it’s the ballet, symphony, or browsing museums, Perry is thankful her new kidney is getting her back to what she loves. As soon as she’s cleared by her doctors, Perry plans to continue her passion of traveling the world. 

“This transplant was an opportunity to add a few more years to my life,” said Perry. “I was going to have to do more dialysis, and we know where that eventually leads. Although there were risks involved at 87 years old, I’m so glad I went through with it. I’m not done living my life yet.”

After making history with a kidney transplant at her age, Perry has a message for older patients in her shoes. 

“Find an advocate who will believe in you,” said Perry. “If it can save your life, you are worthy of someone else’s kidney, even if you’re in your 80’s. Just go for it.” 

For more information on kidney transplantation at Northwestern Medicine, visit nm.org.

CHICAGO, IL – September 2, 2025 – Jessica Lopez doesn’t remember being able to see. The 32-year-old from Chicago, Ill., spent most of her childhood in a hospital, battling leukemia and retinoblastoma that would leave her completely blind. Although years of chemotherapy would help treat the cancers, it would lead to other health problems later in life.  

In November 2023, Lopez was engaged to be married when she found out she needed a new heart and a new liver. She was in heart failure from cardiomyopathy, a type of heart disease affecting the heart muscle, and the impact had spread to her liver. Lopez was listed for a double-organ transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and spent one year on the waiting list. During that time, her condition began affecting a third organ. Lopez no longer needed just a heart and liver – she also needed a new kidney.  

Despite being considered high-risk for the procedure, Lopez says she was never scared. 

“I’ve always been a very positive person, and I don’t like to ever think negatively,” said Lopez. “I was confident from the very beginning that my doctors at Northwestern Medicine were going to do this successfully.”

Finding the right match

Triple-organ transplants are incredibly rare, with only 59 transplants of the heart, liver, and kidney recorded in the U.S. to date. Specialized teams with the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute (BCVI) and the Northwestern Medicine Organ Transplant Center had performed a successful triple transplant in the past and were ready to take on Lopez’s case.  

“From the day I met her in clinic, I knew we were going to pull out all the stops to do what we needed to do to get her feeling better,” said Benjamin Bryner, MD, a cardiac surgeon at Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. “She has an attitude that’s really positive, she’s endearing, and has a great sense of humor. Just walking out of the clinic room, I thought, ‘this is going to be tricky, but we absolutely have to do this.’”

Wait times for triple-organ transplants are often longer than those for single-organ transplants since all three organs must come from the same donor. This can complicate the organ approval process, as sometimes two out of three organs may match but not the third. 

“When you have multiple failing organs, along with a patient who is young and has heart damage due to chemotherapy as opposed to the usual heart disease, it gets a lot more complicated,” said Dr. Bryner. “It’s unusual to find a recipient who can safely get through this complex of an operation.”

On February 24, three organs became available, and Lopez went in for her transplant. Lopez’s heart and liver were transplanted together before a different group of surgeons could move on to the kidney. 

“We transplanted the heart and liver in one block to limit the amount of time the organs go without blood or oxygen,” said Juan Carlos Caicedo, MD, transplant surgeon and surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program at Northwestern Medicine. “The heart and the liver stay connected the whole time from the donor to the recipient. While Dr. Bryner was doing the heart transplant, we were sewing the liver graft. You have two surgeons working simultaneously and that’s one of the advantages of our team.” 

Looking to the future

Lopez is now thriving with her new heart, liver, and kidney, and has been in remission from cancer for 20 years. 

“I feel like I was reborn again,” said Lopez. “I have more energy, my heart beats much stronger and my hands are even warmer. I’m incredibly grateful for my organ donor and their family. Because of their selfless decision, I’ve been given a second chance at life and can start planning for my future.”

Despite being blind with multiple medical challenges, Lopez never tells herself there’s something she can’t do.

“If I have to go somewhere I use landmarks when traveling on my own,” said Lopez. “My phone has accessibility to access rideshare and social media apps. When cooking for myself I use my hands to locate items on the stove. I cook things like rice, seafood, and spaghetti. It’s just about setting my mind to it.”

After recovering from surgery, she plans to attend Loyola University Chicago to study criminal investigation. She hopes to pursue a career in forensics and dreams of one day collecting evidence at crime scenes. 

Lopez and her fiancé, Christopher, are now planning a wedding in California and hope to tie the knot in 2026.  

Cancer’s toll on the heart

An estimated 18 million cancer survivors are currently in the United States and the number is expected to increase to nearly 22 million by 2030. Unfortunately, the same treatments that have improved outcomes for treating cancer can also damage the heart. 

According to the National Cancer Institute, adult survivors of childhood cancers are 10 times more likely to develop coronary disease and 15 times more likely to develop heart failure than their siblings. Treatment-related cardiovascular side effects – known as cardiotoxicities – are also common among survivors of adult cancers.

“When you think about life being unfair, Jessica was dealt a really difficult hand,” said Jonathan Rich, MD, a heart failure and heart transplantation cardiologist at Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. “As an infant, Jessica was diagnosed with cancer and found a way to be a cancer survivor. But in her case, the treatment she needed to become a cancer survivor likely led to her developing heart failure. It feels really unfair. Unfortunately, we do see this and in her in case I think that’s exactly what happened.” 

The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute offer a collaborative Cardio-Oncology Program. The program provides seamless care between cardiology and oncology services for patients affected by cancer. 

To learn more about heart failure and transplant options, visit nm.org.