Northwestern Medicine surgeons have performed the health system’s first successful combined lung-liver transplant. The patient, 63-year-old Patricio Collera of Vernon Hills, Ill., is a retired nurse who worked at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for several years before being diagnosed with interstitial lung disease and nonalcoholic liver disease, which caused scarring of the lungs and liver cirrhosis. Less than 10 days after being added to the waitlist for new organs, Collera received the call on Aug. 24 that a new lung and liver were available. Thanksgiving Day marks three months since Collera received the life changing news, and he’s grateful to those who helped give him a second chance at life.
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