Introduction to Cornelia Tischmacher’s Journey
Cornelia Tischmacher had always longed to become a mother. Then at 40 years old, she gave birth to twins, Leo and Lucie. But within a year of their births, doctors in her native Germany diagnosed her with lung cancer despite not having any significant history of smoking.
The Initial Diagnosis and Treatment
“This is the one thing that just cannot happen,” Tischmacher recalled thinking as she recounted her ordeal recently from a Northwestern Memorial Hospital exam room. “Because my husband is also 18 years older, I thought, ‘Who will take care of them if I am not around?’ So I thought to myself — there is no alternative. You have to survive.’ ” Surviving the past six years has meant chemotherapies, immunotherapies, clinical trials and a lobectomy, which is a surgery that removes a section of an organ. But the cancer persisted. Even as Tischmacher’s health declined and she was unable to cook a meal, she continued getting up each morning and helping her twins with their homework, even if it meant doing so from a couch in their Berlin home.
The Decision for a Double Lung Transplant
She decided to try for more. Faced with a terminal stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis, she arrived in Chicago last December for a double lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine. Five months later, she is no longer showing any signs of cancer, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. Tischmacher, 48, can now breathe on her own and is beginning to tour Chicago. She will have to remain in the city for at least a year without her children, now 8 years old, and her husband as she recovers — and survives.
The Alarming Trend of Lung Cancer in Women
Before Cornelia Tischmacher’s lung transplant surgery, all other medical interventions had failed. Tischmacher’s lung cancer is part of an alarming trend doctors are seeing among women with no significant history of smoking, Bharat said. Because the women, who are in their 40s and 50s, don’t have a history of smoking, they aren’t being diagnosed until the cancer is advanced and more severe.
The DREAM Program and the Road to Recovery
Tischmacher, who upended both her personal and professional life, was told by doctors in Germany that she wasn’t eligible for a lung transplant. That’s when she learned from parents at her son’s school about a program at Northwestern that does transplants on lung cancer patients known as DREAM, Double Lung Transplant Registry Aimed for Lung-Limited Malignancies. The program uses a new and modified surgical technique that removes both lungs before inserting the donated organ, Bharat said. Getting to Chicago proved challenging. She couldn’t fly commercial because of her oxygen needs. Then when she arrived in the U.S., she had to fly to Toronto to visit a U.S. embassy to secure a temporary visitor’s visa for medical treatment.
The Double Lung Transplant Procedure
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, according to Northwestern Medicine, and there’s a growing number of younger women being diagnosed who have no history, or limited history, of smoking. The double lung transplant takes 8 to 10 hours, during which doctors remove the lungs while also ensuring that the billions of cancer cells don’t enter the blood stream or chest cavity, Bharat said. There is a point in the surgery when the patient doesn’t have any lungs and is sustained by machines.
Life After the Transplant
Tischmacher will be monitored by doctors for infections or signs of cancer over the year as she remains in Chicago. She struggles going up stairs, but she is walking about 10,000 steps a day through Chicago’s Loop. Her mornings are typically spent coordinating things for her children and she tries to video chat with them every other day. The twins visited for the first time last month, and saw the city from the top of Willis Tower and played at Maggie Daley Park.
<img class="Image" alt="Cornelia Tischmacher shows pictures of her kids, Leo and Lucie, while sitting in an examination room in Northwestern Memorial Hospital, at 676 N. St. Clair St., on Thursday, May 8, 2025. | Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e538b62/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000×4000+
