I can never say thank you enough: Patient beats lung cancer with double lung transplant [Video]

CHICAGO — A first-of-its-kind transplant team at Northwestern Medicine discharged an unforgettable patient Wednesday after successfully performing a double lung transplant.

Penny Muszanowski quickly became known at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for the ‘thank you’ notes she wrote to every member of her care team during her stay. Each card featured a drawing of a bee.

“I doodle, I call it doodle bee therapy — It’s fun!” Muszanowski said. “My bees tell my story.”

Muszanowski and her bees created plenty of buzz during her stay. Dr. Catherine Myers, a transplant pulmonologist at Northwestern Memorial, said Muszanowski was “such a joy” to be around as she went through the hospital’s “Dream Program” — A first-of-its-kind study that performs double lung transplants on patients who otherwise couldn’t receive one.

Muszanowski, 65, needed the transplant for COPD, but when she went in for an evaluation at another health system, they found cancer in her …