Woman beats Stage 3 lung cancer after Northwestern Medicine surgeons remove lung using robot

CHICAGO - For the first time, Northwestern Medicine surgeons have removed an entire lung with the help of a robot.

The patient beat lung cancer and is now able to spend the holidays at home with her family.

Just two months after surgery, 63-year-old Kathie Schultz has no signs of cancer in her body.

"Don’t wait until you feel terrible to go in. I mean everybody feels great until they don’t. And when that happens, it’s such a shock," said Schultz.

Schultz, 63, from McHenry County, went to the emergency room in May, thinking she had a bad upper respiratory infection. Doctors discovered it was actually stage 3 lung cancer.

 Even though she was a smoker, Kathie had never been screened for lung cancer.

To shrink the tumor, Kathie underwent chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Then in October, she was ready to have her left lung removed.

"This is the first at Northwestern where we have been able to take the whole lung out robotically with a very, very small incision," said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern.

The precision of the robotic surgery meant Kathie's largest incision was less than an inch and a half.

"The scar is like, non-existent after like, eight weeks. I mean this team basically saved my life," Schultz said.

She only spent three days in the hospital after the surgery, which is half the typical duration, and now, she is adamant about regular lung cancer screenings.

"If this even saves like one person, if they listen to this and say, ‘That could be me,’ and they go in. I was just so lucky," Schultz said.

The American Cancer Society updated its lung cancer screening guidelines.

Now, adults ages 50 to 80 who are current or former smokers of 20 years or longer are encouraged to get yearly screenings.