Northwestern Medicine surgeons perform rare ‘flipped organ’ double-lung transplants for 2, including county commissioner

Yahaira Vega (left) and Cook County Commissioner Dennis Deer, who were born with situs inversus — or “flipped organs” in their chest and abdomen, underwent double lung transplants at Northwestern Medicine. (Provided by Northwestern Medicine)

Cook County Commissioner Dennis Deer couldn’t breathe easy during last year’s campaign season.

Not because his reelection was ever in doubt — he netted 88% of the vote in his Chicago district — but because the West Side official’s lungs were failing, to the point that he ended up taking his third oath of office in a hospital room last December.