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Lakewood man hopes risky surgery pays off |
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MS: Innovative surgeryIt is a story you have heard before. A man in the prime of life is stricken by a terrible disease. His best and maybe only shot is complicated transplant surgery. The cost is prohibitive. Friends try to raise the money. But you have probably never heard the version that is being lived by Dave Hassenpflug and his wife, Stella. Correction: make that his ex-wife, Stella. And therein lies the nub of the story. First, Dave. He has multiple sclerosis so severe that his legs turn rigid while he sleeps at night. In the morning, he sits on them, a bit of therapy which gives the legs enough movement for him to get out of bed and into his wheelchair. Medicine helps. "I take 10 milligrams of aminopyridine as soon as I open my eyes," sasl Dave, 33. "It's like putting grease in the Tin Man." In pain around the clock, the Lakewood man is banking on a bone-marrow operation that is a relatively new procedure in treating multiple sclerosis. "I think there's been less than 75 of these operations in the world," he says, "maybe even less than 50." The procedure is not the bone-marrow transplant that is associated with leukemia patients. It is called, instead, a stem-cell transplant, or autologous bone marrow transplantation. "There is no bone-marrow donor," explains Dave. "They use your own marrow. They take all the marrow out of you and clean it and put it all back in you. While this is going on, you are pretty sick. " Dave has been told the operation will cost between $60,000 and $100,000. "Sixty thousand might get me in the door. They said they'd need that much just to start. My insurance won't pay for it. I would think insurance companies would jump at this because they have to pay thousands a year for multiple scierosis patients to sit around and not be cured." His medicine costs alone run about $10,000 a year, he says.
A two-pronged campaign to finance the surgery began last year; two-pronged because part of it is taking place in Oregon, where Dave graduated from high school, where he has family, and where his plight has drawn some media attention. (Save for two years, however, he has always lived in the Long Beach area. He attended Lakewood High. Before MS forced him to retire, Dave was a consultant to the power transmission industry.) In Oregon and here, modest fund-raising efforts - candy sales, a pizza party, loose-change drives plus outright donations have brought in about $10,000. Although the total cash figure is rising slowly, almost a dollar at a time, Dave is not discouraged. For one thing, he says, he has the greatest fund-raiser in creation. His ex-wife, Stella. "She's the main person, the chairperson. She is really super."
Enter super StellaWith help from others, Stella's efforts have included a myriad of fund-raising chores, plus publication of a newsleLter, "The Marrow Minute," and creation of a Web site: www.helpdave.com ("This site best viewed with an open heart," says the home page).An unusual role for a former spouse? Stella, a nurse at the Harriman Jones Medical Group, doesn't think so. "Dave is one of my very best friends," she says. "I've known him since he was 12. We've been together since he was 16." Team Hassenpflug, Dave's support group, includes his sister, Mary Beth Buonassissi, and close family friends Buffy Killeen, Kari Nicolau and Michelle Weeks. Their crowning event will be a dinner and auction Thursday night at Mum's restaurant in downtown Long Beach. (See accompanying story for details on the event and on how to help Dave.) The National Foundation for Transplants has helped with fundraising material and suggestions. Its involvement gives tax-exempt status to donations made to the campaign. Elaborating on why she is helping her ex-husband, Stella says, "I want to see him have a hetter quality of life. And I'd like to see our kids have a better quality of life with him. It's hard for me to hear them say they had to pick Dad up off the bathroom floor." Their boys, Travis, 7, and Max, 10, live with Stella, but visit Dave often. Dave and Stella were separated in 1995, then subsequently divorced. "We just drifted apart," says Stella. But she adds, "He's a great guy. I love him with all my heart
Reason for hopeWhile stem-cell transplant surgery is said to have had promising results over the past 10 years, some neurologists say the risks are high and the potential results can be minimal.Dave, however, gives all that a different spin, especially after having met Ellen Wright, a Los Angeles woman who underwent the procedure. "What a neurologist will tell you is that they don't cure multiple sclerosis. But from what I've seen, I think this is a cure. I saw (Wright), who was worse off than me. She can now walk 18 miles a day. She runs faster than her 9-year-old son." Meanwhile, with his backers leaning heavily on the Thursday auction at Mum's, Dave waits. And hopes. And grows philosophical. "These are the cards I was dealt," he says. "Maybe this time I'll get a better hand." Ed. Note: Let Tom Hennessy know you appreciate his covering Dave's story. You can email him at scribe17@aol.com |
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Dave's surgery, if the money is raised for it, may be the first of its kind performed at the University of California-San Diego Medical Center. His family spent hours on the Internet asking cancer centers to consider him for the operation. Several were interested. UCSD was chosen because it was closest to his home.