Utah Mom Kelsey Flake Pursues Double Lung Transplant for Stage 4 Cancer
Updated
Updated · KSL.com · Aug 23
Utah Mom Kelsey Flake Pursues Double Lung Transplant for Stage 4 Cancer
3 articles · Updated · KSL.com · Aug 23
Summary
39-year-old Kelsey Flake has moved to Chicago for a double lung transplant after Stage 4 cancer in both lungs resisted chemotherapy, immunotherapy and surgery.
Northwestern Medicine is the only U.S. center offering the procedure for cancer patients whose disease remains confined to the lungs; Flake has 41% lung capacity and is on full-time oxygen.
Thursday’s first surgery is meant to prepare her chest for transplant, after which she will go on life support and join the transplant list, with doctors expecting donor lungs within about a week.
Insurance approved the out-of-network treatment, while relatives and neighbors are caring for the Utah couple’s five children and helping cover a planned year in Chicago.
Northwestern says all 17 patients who received similar transplants from 2021 to 2025 were alive this summer, versus less than half of comparable patients treated only medically.