LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — In April, Keith Zafren shared his cancer journey with LEX 18, chronicling a long battle with the disease before a risky lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine.
Now, Zafren is going on a year and a half cancer free, and his wife Lori has written a book to help other families navigate lung cancer.
Zafren was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018. He battled the disease for four years until doctors felt that he was running out of options.
Determined, he got in touch with medical staff at Northwestern Medicine that were offering innovative double-lung transplants for cancer patients.
Zafren and his wife didn’t know it at the time, but the lungs used to save his life weren’t initially viable for transplant because they had blood clots.
“Dr. Ankit Bharat, that brilliant, innovative, courageous surgeon at Northwestern Medicine said, 'Wait a minute, I can fix these, and use that lungs-in-a-box technology to keep the lungs breathing outside the body in order to clear the blood clots to make the lungs usable then stuck them in me,” said Zafren.
In an earlier interview, Northwestern Medicine pulmonologist Dr. Catherine Myers said, “Essentially, it’s a machine that gives the lungs fake blood so the lungs can be kept alive outside of a donor's body and a recipient's body for longer. When we remove the lungs from the donor body, there's a time clock, basically.”
“We didn’t know about the lungs-in-a-box until almost a year later, we didn’t know what happened in that operating room because they innovated it right there,” said Zafren.
A year and a half later, he's cancer free.
“It's amazing, and I just keep getting stronger and happier,” Zafren said.
Thinking back, Zafren’s wife, Lori Friesen said, “It was a cliffhanger, but in real life. It wasn't a story I was intending to write.”
From the diagnosis to the chemo, the ups and downs, Friesen became wife, caregiver, and reporter – writing detailed updates on her husband’s journey for their friends and family.
“We were living this incredible experience and as it was unfolding, people said, ‘This could be so helpful for people who are going through lung cancer. You need to write a book.’”
With no shortage of suspense, heartbreak, and hope, Friesen took pen to paper. Her book, "Lung Cancer Free," launches Saturday, Dec.14.
“It's not so much about us, it's bigger than us, it's about what they're doing in medical science and there's hope even when you think there's no hope, you don't know when your miracle could be right around the corner,” said Friesen.
In addition to chronicling their story, Friesen added links and resources for sleep and mucus reduction, life with a wheelchair, and other obstacles.
“If you think there’s no hope for you, read this book because there wasn’t hope for us either, and that’s the point,” said Friesen.
You can learn more about the book here.
