George Montgomery’s fear turned to hope when he ran into old family friend Dr. Maurice Willis, director of the hematology/oncology clinic at UTMB. Willis was visiting his hometown of Waverly Hall, Ga., when Montgomery shared his medical dilemma with him. Willis calmed Montgomery’s fears as he explained that UTMB had advanced imaging technologies that could pinpoint a hard-to-reach mass like his. If it turned out to be malignant, UTMB could remove the affected areas of the lung using minimally invasive surgical techniques. Dr. Daniel Beckles, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery and medical director of minimally invasive cardiac and thoracic surgery at UTMB, is a board certified thoracic surgeon and one of only a few doctors in the nation able to perform this kind of minimally invasive lung surgery.