# Montezuma resident receives a first-of-its-kind lifesaving surgery

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/talk-of-iowa-414017/montezuma-resident-receives-a-first-of-its-kind-lifesaving-surgery
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/talk-of-iowa-414017/montezuma-resident-receives-a-first-of-its-kind-lifesaving-surgery.md
Podcast: [Talk of Iowa](https://stenobird.com/podcast/talk-of-iowa-414017)
Published: 2026-07-16T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/talk-of-iowa/2026-07-16/montezuma-resident-receives-a-first-of-its-kind-lifesaving-surgery
Audio file: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/4c9587f2-e550-4709-b293-ad0300ce922d/3385bb4b-899e-431e-86a1-ad6b00d98a32/ee19349d-f8b5-4e32-a0a4-b48801387bd0/audio.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/talk-of-iowa-414017/episodes/montezuma-resident-receives-a-first-of-its-kind-lifesaving-surgery
Duration seconds: 2872

## Resource

Elizabeth Wehrle of Montezuma went into the hospital in February and this week she gets to go home. In March, she received a first-of-its-kind lifesaving surgery, a quadruple organ transplant. On this episode, we talk with Wehrle and Dr. Ankit Bharat of Northwestern Medicine, the lead surgeon for this groundbreaking procedure. We hear about the health issues that led to these transplants, what this surgical advancement means and what goes into the decision to perform a surgery that hasn’t been done before. Then, we talk with Suzanna de Baca, Iowa author of 'You Were Never Lost: Poems From The Tallgrass Prairie.' De Baca didn’t expect to write about grief, but when back at the place where she spent her childhood with a friend who died, poetry and nature helped her cope.

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## Transcript

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