Gary Gibbon received a double lung and liver transplant at Northwestern Medicine after being told his lung cancer was too advanced to survive.

As a pulmonologist, Dr. Gary Gibbon never expected to be diagnosed with lung disease himself, much less be in need of a new set of lungs.

“I had no previous medical history of any significance. I was on no medication at all on a regular basis,” Gibbon, of Santa Monica, California, told NBC News.

When he developed a cough and then lost weight, Gibbon got a chest X-ray and CT scan of his lungs. The results were shocking. In spring 2023, Gibbon, who recently turned 69, was told he had advanced stage lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. by a long shot, accounting for about 1 in 5 cancer deaths every year, according to the American Cancer Society.