Mom with cystic fibrosis thrives after quadruple-organ transplant surgery in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It would not be a stretch to consider 36-year old Elizabeth Wehrle a walking miracle.

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The Iowa mother arrived to Northwestern Hospital four months ago on a ventilator and on life support.

She received a second chance at life after surgeons performed a first-of-its-kind quadruple-organ transplant.

Wehrle has a cystic fibrosis diagnosis. In 2017, she had a double-lung transplant at another hospital. She fell sick again in January of this year.

She was eventually diagnosed with a severe form of chronic rejection, that some lung transplant patients get.

Doctors also discovered she was suffering from organ failure because of complications from the cystic fibrosis and would need a liver and kidney transplant too.

Her health deteriorated to the point where she was on both a ventilator and a life support machine.

Wehrle was admitted to Northwestern on March 17 and had the eight-hour long re-transplant and transplant surgery five days later.

The procedure was made possible by an organ donor and donor family.

Wehrle will return to her home in Montazuma, Iowa, on Friday ready to be reunited with her 11-year-old son.

She says she's walking three to four miles a day and is looking forward to go swimming so she can show off her battle scars.