Sandy’s Story: Finding Optimism in the Face of Lung Disease

For a survivor of both breast cancer and a brain aneurysm, Sandy Sherman considers her most recent diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to be “a blip on her screen.” Even though Sherman’s disease is irreversible, her steadfast optimism has helped drive research advances in pulmonary fibrosis – especially at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“You look at a patient like Ms. Sherman,” said Dr. Fernando Martinez, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. “An individual that has a really severe disease, who despite that has remained optimistic, has participated in multiple clinical trials, undergone fiber-optic bronchoscopy – that’s the kind of thing that drives us.”

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