WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – This Father’s Day means a lot more for one Central Florida man who received his second liver transplant back in December.
In 2024, Andrew Wagner was in need of a new liver, as his liver transplant had begun to fail. But because of a Stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis in 2022, finding a doctor to do a second transplant became challenging, even though he was cancer-free.
“That cancer diagnosis was the roadblock,” said Andrew’s wife, Nicole Wagner. “It was the roadblock to everybody saying, ‘No.’”
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Doctors said it’s likely that Wagner only had a few months to live. Wagner said it felt like a forever journey when they were looking for answers.
“Every day and every week went on, it was like you were getting worse, you were feeling worse,” Andrew Wagner said. “And then really I think the hardest thing for me was to see the rest of the family see you a certain way.”
But one day, Nicole happened to find an article about Dr. Gary Gibbon, a California doctor with active lung cancer who traveled to Northwestern Medicine to receive the first double lung and liver transplant for advanced lung care.
“The first thing I said was, ‘How can they do this?’” Nicole Wagner said. “How can they transplant this gentleman with active lung cancer and give him a new liver? And so that prompted my first phone call.”
In October 2024, Andrew and Nicole made the trip up to Northwestern Medicine so Andrew could get evaluated for a second liver transplant. They finally got the answer they were looking for, and by November Andrew was put on the list for a new liver.
Six weeks later, they got the call that he would be getting a new liver and on Dec. 16, doctors began the process of transplanting his liver.
“I pushed myself really hard afterwards to do whatever it takes to get back because I know if I’m up, I have a whole new lease on life,” Andrew Wagner said.
Now, just days before heading back up for his 6-month checkup, Andrew said he feels amazing.
He’s back home in Winter Garden celebrating Father’s Day with his two daughters, two step-daughters and their family’s newest addition — their granddaughter.
“It’s just like you really don’t even feel like you want to go to bed the night before because, well, we’re obviously celebrating with so many fathers in the family. It’s like Christmas,” Andrew Wagner said.
According to a news release, Northwestern Medicine is one of the few known health systems in the country focused on redefining the criteria for transplant eligibility, especially for patients with lung or colorectal cancer. It goes on to state the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute has performed more than 50 lung transplants for patients with advanced lung cancers through a first-of-its-kind clinical program called DREAM (Double Lung Transplant Registry Aimed for Lung-Limited Malignancies).
To learn more about Northwestern’s transplant programs, click here.
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