They Called Her Family to Say Goodbye: Katherine Keys' Mesothelioma Surgery and 18-Year Survival (Part 3)

"They Called Her Family to Say Goodbye: Katherine Keys' Mesothelioma Surgery and 18-Year Survival (Part 3)"

Katherine Keys was given 12-18 months to live after her pleural mesothelioma diagnosis. More than 18 years later, she's the longest documented pleural mesothelioma survivor in the world. In this final episode of her three-part interview, Katherine describes her extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery, the moment her family was told she wouldn't survive, and why choosing an expert surgeon saved her life.

In This Episode: 

• What to expect before, during, and after extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) surgery 

• Katherine's experience on life support when her family was called to say goodbye 

• The 50/50 risk of nerve damage she faced going into surgery 

• Why choosing a mesothelioma specialist—not a generalist—can mean life or death

Who Should Listen: Mesothelioma patients considering surgery, caregivers preparing to support a loved one, and anyone seeking hope from someone who defied a terminal prognosis.

FAQ

What is an extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP)? EPP is a radical surgical procedure that removes the affected lung, lung lining (pleura), portions of the diaphragm, and heart lining (pericardium). Surgery typically requires accessing the chest through the back and may involve breaking a rib. EPP is now performed less frequently, with many surgeons preferring pleurectomy/decortication (P/D).

What is the typical mesothelioma survival rate? Median survival is 12-21 months without treatment and 18-31 months with treatment. The 5-year survival rate is approximately 10-12%. Long-term survivors like Katherine Keys are rare but demonstrate survival is possible with expert care.

Why choose a mesothelioma specialist surgeon? With only ~3,000 U.S. cases annually, most surgeons see one or two cases in their careers. Specialists at centers like MD Anderson, Brigham and Women's, or Memorial Sloan Kettering have performed hundreds of procedures. Katherine credits her survival to choosing Dr. David Rice rather than staying with her initial physician.

About the Participants

Dave Foster — Executive Director of Patient Advocacy at Danziger & De Llano (18 years experience). Author of Beating The Odds: Surviving with Mesothelioma.

Katherine Keys — Longest documented pleural mesothelioma survivor (18+ years post-diagnosis and EPP surgery).

Anna Jackson — Director of Patient Support at Danziger & De Llano (nearly 15 years experience).

Resources

Book: Beating The Odds: Surviving with Mesothelioma by Dave Foster

Danziger & De Llano: https://dandell.com 

• Mesothelioma Lawsuits

• Asbestos Trust Funds ($30B+ available)

• Veterans & Mesothelioma

Episode Series:

1. Understanding Mesothelioma: First Steps After a Diagnosis
2. The Longest-Known Survivor of Pleural Mesothelioma: Katherine Keys' 18-Year Journey (Part 1)
3. 18 Years After Lung Removal: Katherine Keys' Record-Breaking Survival Story (Part 2)
4. They Called Her Family to Say Goodbye: Katherine Keys' Surgery and 18-Year Survival (Part 3) — this episode

Sponsor: MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbes

MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. For a free consultation, visit Dandell.com.

Chapters

• 0:00 Longest-Living Survivor Introduced
• 1:19 Talc Exposure And Legal Context
• 2:36 Life Over Money: Perspective On Survival
• 3:49 Pre-Surgery Expectations And Risks
• 6:00 ICU Reality: Pain, Tubes, Isolation
• 8:10 Faith, Resolve, And Facing Mortality
• 10:16 Choosing Dates, Choosing Strength
• 11:20 Why A True Mesothelioma Expert Matters
• 13:00 Closing Resources And Support

Transcript

MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast — Episode 4 Transcript

"They Called Her Family to Say Goodbye: Katherine Keys' Mesothelioma Surgery and 18-Year Survival (Part 3)"

Episode Summary: Katherine Keys, the longest documented pleural mesothelioma survivor in the world, describes her extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) surgery, recovery in ICU, and the moment her family was told she wouldn't survive. This episode explores what patients should expect from major mesothelioma surgery and why choosing an expert surgeon can mean the difference between life and death.

Host: Dave Foster, Executive Director of Patient Advocacy at Danziger & De Llano (18 years experience)
Guest: Katherine Keys, 21+ year pleural mesothelioma survivor
Featured: Anna Jackson, Director of Patient Support at Danziger & De Llano (nearly 15 years experience)

Key Takeaways

• Expert surgeons save lives: Katherine credits her survival to Dr. David Rice, a mesothelioma specialist, and believes she would not have survived with a less experienced surgeon
• EPP surgery realities: The extrapleural pneumonectomy involves lung removal, removal of the lung lining, and typically requires breaking a rib for surgical access
• Survival expectations: Katherine was told patients typically survive 12-18 months after diagnosis—she has now survived more than 21 years
• Talcum powder connection: Katherine's case predated the talcum powder asbestos litigation; today, similar cases involving cosmetic talc exposure may have different legal outcomes
• ICU recovery: Post-EPP patients may require intubation, feeding tubes, and complete reliance on nursing care for basic needs

Full Transcript

Introduction

[SHOW INTRO]

Narrator: You are listening to MESO, the Mesothelioma Podcast, where support, education, and outreach come together for families facing mesothelioma.

Segment 1: The Longest Survivor

Dave Foster: We are back here with the lovely Katherine Keys, who's the longest surviving pleural mesothelioma patient that I know of in the world. I was at the International Mesothelioma Conference and they said, "You are the longest living survivor."

Anyway, you've done an amazing thing. I actually watched your podcast from last week, and I commented on it—you just have an amazing personality. You're so lucky, Katherine. I mean, you're one in a million people that you are here today with us, and we get to know you. It's not just that you survived, which is a miracle in and of itself, but you survived and you're with us, and we've been friends all this time.

Katherine Keys: Absolutely.

Dave Foster: Now this is unscripted, but I was going to say something. Your case was interesting because it kind of predated something. It predated the talcum powder thing.

Nowadays—and I'm not trying to make you feel bad—but if your case was presented to us today, it'd be completely different because talcum powders are now involved. Makeups, talcum powders, foot powders had asbestos in it, and nobody knew that. And you had some of that exposure in your life.

Katherine, I haven't told you this before, but your life would be so much different had that even been a possibility.

Katherine Keys: Exactly. Wow.

Dave Foster: Exactly right. But anyway, we all have our crosses to bear, and this is where we are now, and we're trying to survive and move forward. I mentioned that as a sad note, but at the same time, 99.9% of the people in your situation may have had more money, but they wouldn't be alive. So anyway, here you are—a lovely, beautiful person.

Katherine Keys: You said a mouthful, Dave. I'm sorry to interrupt, but you said a mouthful.

Dave Foster: I did.

Katherine Keys: I mean, think about it. Money can't buy you life.

Dave Foster: That's right. I thought about this a lot, and one of the things that I believe now—I don't think I've ever aired it before—but every day of your life, money becomes increasingly unimportant. And at some point, it doesn't matter how much money you have. The only thing that matters is if you're alive. Think about how many people at my age, 64, have gone before me.

Katherine Keys: You're just a baby.

Dave Foster: I know. But many a man, many of my friends have gone before us, but here we are. We've survived. And regardless of the financial circumstances, we're alive and we're happy. We're smiling and breathing.

And you breathing—you are such a special person because not only did you survive, you survived one of the most devastating, lethal diseases known to man.

Anyway, that's the segue to our next segment, which is: I want you to tell us a little bit about your surgery, what happened after the surgery, and then kind of where you went after that.

Segment 2: Preparing for Extrapleural Pneumonectomy

Katherine Keys: Oh, wow. Let's see. Where do I start?

Dave Foster: I mean, Dr. Rice, who's one of the most wonderful people I've ever met—

Katherine Keys: Right.

Dave Foster: He's your surgeon. Tell me what happens when he preps you for surgery, what your expectations are, and then what happens.

Katherine Keys: Okay. Well, I don't know what he did when he prepped me for surgery, but all I remember is the anesthesia. That's it. I was out.

Dave Foster: Wait, wait, wait. But what did he tell you you should expect of the surgery and what might happen? Do you remember that?

Katherine Keys: Yes.

Dave Foster: Okay. Tell me.

Katherine Keys: He told me that what they were going to do is they were going to remove my lung. They were going to remove the lining of my lung, and that there was a 50-50 chance that I would wind up having nerve damage.

And what they were going to do is they would have to go through my back for the surgery and break one of my ribs. And of course, trying to recover from a broken rib is going to take a little while.

That's pretty much what I remember.

Dave Foster: Did he tell you the chances of survival or anything like that?

Katherine Keys: Oh, yes. He told me that usually people only live about a year or a year and a half.

Dave Foster: That's true. If they're lucky.

Katherine Keys: Yeah. That's what he told me.

Dave Foster: And I'm just going to add something, Katherine. Not only do they just live a year and a half, but they've got tubes draining out of them. The people that I've known that have gone through that surgery—which is not done much anymore—

Katherine Keys: Really?

Dave Foster: Not necessarily pretty. Tubes draining, follow-up pain. But anyway, I'm not trying to be morbid. I'm just telling you that's the reality of it. So tell me what happened to you.

Segment 3: ICU Recovery and Life Support

Katherine Keys: Okay. Well, I remember being in recovery, and I think my family was there, and some of them wanted to come in to see me.

After my surgery, after I recovered, I remember having to lay on my back for so many hours—about eight, maybe longer hours. And it was really, really painful because it actually felt like I was laying on a bed of nails. That's just how painful it was.

Dave Foster: They broke your rib. They cut into your muscles and went in that way, and you're laying on your back where that was. Okay.

Katherine Keys: Exactly. So after recovery, they took me to ICU, of course. And I pretty much had to rely on the nurses to give me my baths.

They had this big tube thing in my throat. It was kind of like a big ball in my throat. So I couldn't eat anything. I couldn't brush my teeth. They had to go in with Q-tips and those little swab things to keep my mouth moist. And I couldn't talk, but I could hum.

They gave me a pad to write with, but I pretty much had to rely on the nurses for everything in ICU every day.

In ICU, you could only have maybe one or two visitors come in at a time. So that was kind of a little... made you feel a little down.

Dave Foster: So you feel alone, isolated. And you're in pain.

Katherine Keys: Yeah. Yeah.

But anyway, that made me think about my daughters, which I didn't know at the time, but they told me that they had called in my whole family from Dallas to get to Houston because I was on life support.

This was after the fact—I was on life support, and they told them that they needed to get to Houston because I wasn't going to make it. That's what they told them.

Dave Foster: Wow.

Katherine Keys: Yeah. But of course, my daughters told me this after the fact.

And so when they told me that, you know what I told 'em? I said, first of all, I don't know what you guys saw. I don't know what was going on because I was out.

But before I went into surgery—and I know a lot of people may not believe in God—but before I went into surgery, I had a relationship, and I still have a relationship with God. It's a spiritual thing. Let's just use the word "a higher power."

So I had consulted with the higher power, and the higher power being spiritual, it let me know that yes, I was going to go through this surgery, but it let me know—and I can hear you saying this—that this just came to pass. I was going in, but I was coming out.

So when I went to surgery, I wasn't afraid. I was just maybe sitting there twiddling my thumbs, like, "Okay, let's get this show on the road. Let's get this demon out of my body. Let's go."

Dave Foster: And that's how I would've felt. Get it out of me.

Katherine Keys: Get it out of me. Regardless—

Dave Foster: Of what happens.

Katherine Keys: What do we got to do? Good, bad, or ugly? I want to—

Dave Foster: Exactly. Exactly.

Katherine Keys: Just get it out. Fastest way you can get it out. Let's go for it.

So anyway, initially they tried to have me have surgery on July the 12th. Well, no, that wasn't happening. July the 12th was my birthday.

Dave Foster: Oh no. You were like 33 then.

Katherine Keys: That's right. No, I was like 21. 21 plus. So anyway, Dr. Rice, being the sweet doctor that he is—very good bedside manner, I just could go on and on about him. I recommend him for anybody.

Segment 4: The Importance of Expert Surgeons

Anna Jackson: And can I go back to one thing you said in the beginning, which I think is really important for people to know? You said, and I know that you feel this way: it's really important to have a doctor that knows what they're doing. It's really important that you research the doctors that are taking care of you.

Katherine Keys: You have to research.

Anna Jackson: Because the outcome could be—if you would've stayed with the first one, the outcome... you may not be here doing this podcast.

Katherine Keys: I really believe I would not have been here.

Anna Jackson: I mean, based on what you were saying in the beginning, in the first podcast that we sat with you—and it goes with everything. You need to know who's taking care of you.

Now, the great thing about you is that you talk about your spiritual life and the relationship that you have. He was probably guiding you that way as well.

Katherine Keys: Absolutely.

Anna Jackson: But it is important that when someone is diagnosed with mesothelioma, that they look for someone that knows what they're doing—not someone that's maybe done it once. You want someone that knows exactly what this cancer is.

Katherine Keys: You really need—I would say you really need an expert.

Dave Foster: Absolutely.

Katherine Keys: You have to. Just say "an expert." Especially for mesothelioma. That's a big word. That's a great big word.

Dave Foster: And I couldn't tell you how many times we've had people that had surgery from people that thought they wanted to do it, thought they could do it, and they could not—and nothing good happens.

And the same is true of the lawyers that help you. This is no advertisement at all. But they think they can do it, they want to do it, and they don't do any favors for anybody.

Closing

Narrator: Thank you for listening to MESO, the Mesothelioma Podcast. For more information, resources, and support, visit our sponsors Danziger and De Llano at Dandell.com.

Resources Mentioned

Books

• Beating The Odds: Surviving with Mesothelioma by David Foster — Real stories of patients diagnosed with aggressive mesothelioma who defied survival expectations. Dave Foster, host of MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast, shares the collective stories of patients who were given months to live but beat the odds.

Danziger & De Llano Resources

• Dandell.com — Free mesothelioma case evaluations and legal consultations
• Mesothelioma Lawsuit Information — Understanding your legal options after diagnosis
• Asbestos Trust Funds — Over $30 billion available for qualified claimants
• Mesothelioma Treatment Guide — Overview of surgical, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy options
• Veterans & Mesothelioma — Resources for the 30% of mesothelioma patients who served in the military

Treatment Centers Referenced

• MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX) — One of the nation's leading mesothelioma treatment and research centers
• Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA) — International Mesothelioma Program
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) — Comprehensive mesothelioma care

Episode Series

• Episode 1: Understanding Mesothelioma: First Steps After a Diagnosis
• Episode 2: The Longest-Known Survivor of Pleural Mesothelioma: Katherine Keys' 18-Year Journey (Part 1)
• Episode 3: 18 Years After Lung Removal: Katherine Keys' Record-Breaking Mesothelioma Survival Story (Part 2)
• Episode 4: They Called Her Family to Say Goodbye: Katherine Keys' Mesothelioma Surgery and 18-Year Survival (Part 3) (this episode)

About the Participants

Dave Foster serves as Executive Director of Patient Advocacy at Danziger & De Llano, where he has spent 18 years helping mesothelioma families navigate diagnosis, treatment, and legal options. Dave lost his own father to asbestos-related lung cancer.

Katherine Keys is the longest documented pleural mesothelioma survivor, having lived more than 21 years since her diagnosis and extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery. She shares her story to give hope to newly diagnosed patients and emphasize the importance of expert medical care.

Anna Jackson is Director of Patient Support at Danziger & De Llano with nearly 15 years of experience. Anna lost her own husband to cancer and brings personal understanding to her work with mesothelioma families.

MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. For a free consultation, visit Dandell.com.

This transcript is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Consult qualified professionals for guidance specific to your situation.