A new mother of twins from Berlin finds a miracle in Chicago after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine save her life with a double-lung transplant.
As a new mom of twins, 40- year-old Cornelia Tischmacher of Berlin had no time for pneumonia.
When it wouldn’t go away, she went to the doctor in January 2018 and was shocked to learn she had stage 3 lung cancer. Tischmacher underwent surgery and chemotherapy to get rid of the cancer, but it returned a little over a year later.
“I think I had one clear chest CT and then by March we saw little, tiny specks, which didn't worry me because I thought, oh we can start cutting. And then they told me, no it's a sign that you have a systemic disease, you'll have to live with it from now on, you won't be without any therapy, and this is not going end well.”
Palliative care with chemotherapy and immunotherapy slowed progression of the disease, But by June 2024, she could no longer breathe without supplemental oxygen.
That’s when she learned about the DREAM program at Northwestern Medicine… where patients with advanced lung cancer that hasn’t spread elsewhere can be considered for a double-lung transplant.
Ankit Bharat, MD of Northwestern said during their first visit, he knew Tischmacher’s only option for survival was a transplant.
“She was having difficulty even speaking in single sentences because the lungs were failing. And clearly, she was at the end of the road.”
Tischmacher boarded an air ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago in December 2024. She was placed on the transplant waiting list on Christmas Eve and two days later, received her new lungs.
She remembers waking up after the surgery finally able to breathe.
“They had told me that there would be a breathing tube. But even with it, I could tell, okay, this is… somehow, I felt great.”
Tischmacher was discharged to an apartment in Chicago a week later and will stay there for one-year to be near her medical team.
The hardest part, she says, is being away from her husband and twins in Berlin. But they recently came for a very special visit.
“It’s been so many months that I’ve thought about how this would feel. The moment has arrived and it’s great. It’s great. And I’m so happy that this is like a happy continuation of the story. Because it could have been so different. When we said goodbye, it was so much more dramatic and now they’re back and everything is happy.”
Dr. Bharat says, “Cornelia, I think, is going to do incredibly well. She's going to be with us for a very long time.”
Surgeons at Northwestern have performed more than 50 lung transplants for patients with advanced lung cancers. So far, they’ve had 100% survival of all patients.
Cornelia is excited about her life ahead and says, “This is amazing. This is just incredible. I'm still processing it. And it's also great to take these risks as surgeons.
Source: Northwestern Medicine
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