6abc’s ‘Visions’ Highlights Temple Health Patient Ted Dawson’s Lung Transplant Journey

6abc’s “Visions” program featured patient Ted Dawson’s journey to a lung transplant after he first started having difficulty breathing nearly 10 years ago. Ted has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a progressive condition characterized by coughing or wheezing, shortness of breath, and tightness in the chest. Ted initially relied on inhalers and medications, then lung volume reduction surgery on the top lobe of his right lung. The left lung, however, was deemed unsustainable long term. Gerard J. Criner, MD, FACP, FACCP, Chair and Professor of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Director of the Temple Lung Center, guided Ted and his wife Lisa through the transplant process, and Ted received his new lung in July 2025 in a surgery performed by Yoshiya Toyoda, MD, PhD, William Maul Measey Chair and Professor of Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Surgical Director of Thoracic Transplantation at Temple University Hospital.