For Oak Forest resident Michelle Knight, a double lung transplant has given her the life she had almost given up on.
Although the recovery period has been gruelling at times – he was placed on a ventilator immediately after surgery, underwent intensive rehabilitation and took 25 pills every day to prevent rejection and infection – Knight, 64, is optimistic about the whole experience.
“I'm grateful. I'm blessed,” Knight said as she waited in her office at Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital to see a lung transplant pulmonologist. “I feel totally fine. I feel great.”
Part of that perspective comes from having a firm grasp of the bigger picture.
“I was able to get two new lungs,” Knight said.
Her pulmonologist, Dr Mrinalini Venkata Subramani, said she was in good condition. She had end-stage COPD and was on oxygen but was diagnosed with lung cancer three months ago during a transplant operation. She also underwent major abdominal surgery last year and had been in rehabilitation for several weeks.
“I knew Michelle before her transplant,” Subramani said, “and I saw her transformation from being seriously ill to being independent.
“Her breathing is completely normal and she can do anything she wants.”
The lung transplant clinic in Palos, which opened in January, has been a big help. She, her family and caregivers commuted downtown to Northwestern University for appointments and tests. The commute to and from Chicago only added to her already debilitating fatigue.
Subramani said Knight's 25-year-old daughter and primary caregiver, Francesca Agostinelli, nearly cried when she heard about the clinic's opening. “It's such a relief that she no longer has to drive (her) mother downtown to be seen.”
“For patients who live in this area, that can take hours,” said Anne Oboiye, manager of the lung transplant program at Northwestern Medicine's Canning Thoracic Institute. “It has a huge impact on patients.”
Subramani said it usually takes patients four to 12 weeks after surgery to fully recover, depending on their fitness before the transplant and their recovery immediately after.
Northwestern Medicine performed its first double lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient in 2020, but its lung transplant program has been in operation for nearly a decade and has performed transplants on more than 400 patients, hospital officials said. The DREAM program, which officially launched in 2023 to provide lung transplants for certain lung cancer patients, has performed lung transplants on more than 40 patients.
“Our double lung transplant program is a lifesaving program for end-stage lung disease, and there can be many causes of lung disease,” Subramani explained.
Knight's family has supported her through the many hospital visits, pain and recovery, and it was evident to the medical staff who assisted her.
“My family has been a huge support,” Subramani said.
Knight's daughter said she and her sisters banded together to try to help their mother, but because three of her sisters live out of state and Agostinelli lives with them, they were unable to respond to their mother's calls for long periods of time.
At the moment, he only needs to see Dr. Knight once a month, but after the transplant he will be coming in three to four times a week for tests and consultations.
“It's a lot of work,” Agostinelli said. “They trained us on how to administer the medicine and what to look out for (in terms of infection and rejection).”
“They're like family. The team at Northwestern was very helpful, explaining everything.”
Knight also praised the doctors, nurses and other medical workers who continue to help her.
“The staff were all very friendly,” she said.
Janice Newman is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
