From shortness of breath to breathing freely.
NASA engineer and mother Jodi Graf is thankful to celebrate another Mother’s Day after undergoing a new procedure to treat her terminal lung cancer.
Now, the 61-year-old robotics software developer is cancer-free, can breathe easily and walk without an oxygen tank.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the US, and cases are increasing among young women and those who have never smoked before.
Graf has had breathing problems for nearly three decades, having been diagnosed in 2005 with interstitial lung disease, which causes scarring of the lungs, despite having no history of smoking.
He remained stable until his condition worsened and he had to rely on supplemental oxygen.
“Basic operations require more oxygen on a regular basis – sometimes 10 liters,” Graf said in a press release. “Just going from my car to my office at NASA was a great experience.”
But when the Houston-based mother went in for a lung transplant in 2023, doctors found something far worse.
A mass was found in his lungs, and he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, which made him ineligible for a transplant. While being treated with radiation, Graf’s lung function dropped to 30%.
However, he never gave up hope, hoping that a lung transplant was still an option and always looking for solutions, which led him to the DREAM Program at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
Short for the Double Lung Transplant Registry for Restricted Lung Disease, the clinical trial is an experimental study in which selected patients with advanced lung cancer receive a double lung transplant.
This program is currently the only program in the country that provides an important solution to cancer patients who have no other options.
This procedure involves a full heart and lung bypass, removing cancer-filled lungs and lymph nodes, cleaning the airways and chest to remove the cancer and transplanting new lungs.
Starting the process with a test to see if he was a good candidate last November, Graf underwent surgery and received his new lungs on Thanksgiving Day.
After the operation, he was able to walk without oxygen.
Since beginning in 2014, the Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program has performed more than 700 lung transplant procedures.
Most of the patients are those with terminal illnesses such as COVID, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and others.
The waiting time is among the shortest in the country, with an average wait of three days to be matched with new lungs.
Not only was Graf’s trial a success, but doctors hope the procedure has more implications than simply breathing for patients.
“We believe this procedure can help reduce the risk of recurrence, which we have learned from our pioneering experience with the 2020 COVID-19 lung transplant,” said Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, in a statement.
Now that she can breathe again, Graf is determined to take trips and hikes with her husband and two sons, as well as be there to celebrate more Mother’s Days.
“With my new lungs, I am very happy that I will be here for a long time,” she said. “They are grown, but they still need their mother.”
