Blinded by Childhood Cancer, Bride-to-Be Gets New Chance at Life with Rare Triple-Organ Transplant at Northwestern Medicine

Jessica Lopez doesn’t remember being able to see. The 32-year-old from Chicago, Ill., spent most of her childhood in a hospital, battling leukemia and retinoblastoma that would leave her completely blind. Although years of chemotherapy would help treat the cancers, it would lead to other health problems later in life.  

In November 2023, Lopez was engaged to be married when she found out she needed a new heart and a new liver. She was in heart failure from cardiomyopathy, a type of heart disease affecting the heart muscle, and the impact had spread to her liver. Lopez was listed for a double-organ transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and spent one year on the waiting list. During that time, her condition began affecting a third organ. Lopez no longer needed just a heart and liver – she also needed a new kidney.  

Despite being considered high-risk for the procedure, Lopez says she was never scared. 

“I’ve always been a very positive person, and I don’t like to ever think negatively,” said Lopez. 

Triple-organ transplants are incredibly rare, with only 59 transplants of the heart, liver, and kidney recorded in the U.S. to date. Specialized teams with the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute (BCVI) and the Northwestern Medicine Organ Transplant Center had performed a successful triple transplant in the past and were ready to take on Lopez’s case.  

Benjamin Bryner, MD, a cardiac surgeon at Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute said ,"She has an attitude that’s really positive, she’s endearing, and has a great sense of humor. Just walking out of the clinic room, I thought, ‘this is going to be tricky, but we absolutely have to do this."

Wait times for triple-organ transplants are often longer than those for single-organ transplants since all three organs must come from the same donor. This can complicate the organ approval process, as sometimes two out of three organs may match but not the third. 

“When you have multiple failing organs, along with a patient who is young and has heart damage due to chemotherapy as opposed to the usual heart disease, it gets a lot more complicated,” said Dr. Bryner. “It’s unusual to find a recipient who can safely get through this complex of an operation.”

“We transplanted the heart and liver in one block to limit the amount of time the organs go without blood or oxygen,” said Juan Carlos Caicedo, MD, transplant surgeon and surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program at Northwestern Medicine. “The heart and the liver stay connected the whole time from the donor to the recipient. While Dr. Bryner was doing the heart transplant, we were sewing the liver graft. You have two surgeons working simultaneously and that’s one of the advantages of our team.” 

Lopez is now thriving with her new heart, liver, and kidney, and has been in remission from cancer for 20 years. 

“I feel like I was reborn again,” said Lopez. “I have more energy, my heart beats much stronger and my hands are even warmer. I’m incredibly grateful for my organ donor and their family. Because of their selfless decision, I’ve been given a second chance at life and can start planning for my future.”

Despite being blind with multiple medical challenges, Lopez never tells herself there’s something she can’t do.

“If I have to go somewhere I use landmarks when traveling on my own,” said Lopez. “My phone has accessibility to access rideshare and social media apps. When cooking for myself I use my hands to locate items on the stove. I cook things like rice, seafood, and spaghetti. It’s just about setting my mind to it.”

After recovering from surgery, she plans to attend Loyola University Chicago to study criminal investigation. She hopes to pursue a career in forensics and dreams of one day collecting evidence at crime scenes. 

Lopez and her fiancé, Christian, are now planning a wedding in California and hope to tie the knot in 2026.  

Unfortunately, the same treatments that have improved outcomes for treating cancer can also damage the heart. 

According to the National Cancer Institute⁽¹⁾, adult survivors of childhood cancers are 10 times more likely to develop coronary disease and 15 times more likely to develop heart failure than their siblings. Treatment-related cardiovascular side effects – known as cardiotoxicities – are also common among survivors of adult cancers.

Jonathan Rich, MD, a heart failure and heart transplantation cardiologist at Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute said ,“As an infant, Jessica was diagnosed with cancer and found a way to be a cancer survivor. But in her case, the treatment she needed to become a cancer survivor likely led to her developing heart failure. It feels really unfair. Unfortunately, we do see this and in her in case I think that’s exactly what happened.” 

Reference:

1. https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/late-effects-hp-pdq

(Newswise/VK)