With his mallet in hand and a quiet buzz of anticipation in the air, John lined up for a jump shot — and executed it perfectly. But as the ball moved toward its target, a sharp pain jolted through his arm and shoulder. The next thing he knew, he was at a nearby emergency room.

"They did an X-ray. It clearly showed my arm was broken in half, and that was rather confusing to me,” John says. “I wasn’t an old guy. I was in great shape. There was no reason for my bones to break.”

John and Gail, who split time between Scottsdale, Arizona, and the coast of Massachusetts, traveled to Boston to meet with an orthopedist, wanting to understand what could have caused such a severe fracture. The MRI results found the culprit: a tumor.

An Unexpected Diagnosis

John was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare cancer of the bone marrow that weakens the bone from the inside out. In his case, the cancer had progressed enough to make his arm susceptible to fracture — even during a relatively low-impact activity such as croquet.

“When the doctors came into my room and told me I had this cancer, I’d never even heard of it. No matter how much you think you can be ready for someone to tell you that, you’re not,” John says. “I figured I was going to die within the next month and was running through all the different scenarios: ‘What can I do? What should I do? What do I have to do before I die?’”

It wasn’t long before John was undergoing his first operation to remove the cancer, followed by radiation, chemotherapy and other infusion drugs. Unfortunately, despite these interventions, the cancer still spread to his other arm, prompting a second surgery. “Here I am, both arms in slings at the same time. That made life challenging,” he says.

As John headed home to Scottsdale postsurgery, his future felt uncertain and hope out of reach. But everything changed after becoming a patient at Mayo Clinic.

Finding Hope

As a resident of the Desert Mountain community in Scottsdale, John was able to utilize Desert Mountain CARE to connect with Leif Bergsagel, M.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona who specializes in multiple myeloma treatment.

“The moment I got an email from him that said, ‘Sure, I’d love to take you on as a patient,’ there was this relief, joy and exhilaration,” John says. “I went from thinking, ‘I’m not going to find anyone’ to having a terrific doctor at Mayo Clinic. When I read that email, I was dancing around the house the rest of the day.”

Dr. Bergsagel, a David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Professor of Novel Therapeutics for Cancer Research, reassured John that most of what’s found online about multiple myeloma is out of date. “It used to be that multiple myeloma was a death sentence, with a survival rate of about three years. That’s no longer the case,” he says.

Mayo Clinic has developed highly effective new treatments that can keep the cancer at bay, giving patients like John hope.

A Path Forward

In January 2023, John received a stem cell transplant while under Dr. Bergsagel’s care. “After a bone marrow biopsy, it became clear that I was doing extremely well against this cancer,” John says.

Stem cell therapy is just one part of a growing number of treatment options for multiple myeloma. Looking ahead, the future of treating rare cancers such as multiple myeloma may include cutting-edge approaches like CAR-T cell therapy — a promising form of immunotherapy that involves reprogramming a patient’s own immune cells to target and destroy cancer cells.

“It sounds like science fiction. We’re harnessing the patient’s T cells to identify the cancer and eradicate it,” Dr. Bergsagel says. “We take the T cells out of a patient and engineer them to recognize the tumor, then put them back in the patient. They expand exponentially and kill the tumor — and keep it away for years.”

Dr. Bergsagel says the goal is to reach the point of being able to treat cancer like a chronic disease, such as high blood pressure.

"We’re getting closer and closer to that. The future is really bright for patients with multiple myeloma,” he says. “We don’t think that we can cure it just yet, but we think we can control it for decades at this point. We’re looking at ways of improving the quality of life for the patients on those therapies so they can basically lead a normal life.”

Back on the Court

Throughout John’s entire cancer journey, he held onto one vision: getting back to croquet.

"When I had my stem cell transplant, I spent most of the day in bed and I would dream of going back on the croquet court and being able to swing my mallet and enjoy my friends, and play with my wife as a partner,” he says.

Now, that dream is a reality. John is back to playing the game he loves, with gratitude in every swing. But for him, it’s more than a return to normal. It’s a reminder of how far he’s come — and how much more there is to look forward to.

“I’ve got my cancer count down now to virtually indistinguishable levels, which is very encouraging to me,” John says. “Dr. Bergsagel assures me that moving forward, we have a good chance of keeping it there.”

The post Back in the Game appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Beckett's parents, Tracie Hoggarth and Ron Beyer, took him to his pediatrician. Blood tests revealed elevated liver enzymes, which often indicate inflammation or damage to liver cells.

To find out more about the cause of Beckett's symptoms, the family traveled to Minneapolis to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. At just 8 weeks of age, fearing Beckett had biliary atresia — the most common condition associated with his symptoms at this age — they pursued advanced care to investigate the cause of his liver disease.

For the next 13 years, Beckett's care was managed by a few teams of gastroenterologists in Minneapolis.

After several rounds of genetic testing, they discovered that his liver disease was caused by Alagille syndrome. This rare genetic disease affected his liver and bile ducts by reducing bile flow out of the liver and causing jaundice, which is the darkening and yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes. This bile buildup in the liver damages cells, eventually leading to liver failure.

Alagille syndrome can affect the liver, heart, kidneys, skeleton, eyes and blood vessels. Complications of the syndrome may be life-threatening. Fortunately, Beckett's form of Alagille syndrome only affects his liver.

Living With Liver Disease

Beckett is a mechanically inclined 14-year-old who likes lawn mowers, riding four-wheelers, and repairing and driving RC cars. But his liver disease was throwing a wrench in his health and keeping him from doing all the activities he enjoys.

For several years, he had a mass growing in his liver that eventually grew to 10 x 13 centimeters in size. "For three years, they monitored it via ultrasound and secondary conditions from his liver disease with endoscopy, which is how we learned his disease was advancing," recalls Tracie. “When they performed an updated biopsy on his liver, they learned he had advanced cirrhosis.” Cirrhosis is severe scarring of the liver, which makes it difficult for the liver to do its job.

Given a liver transplant was becoming a likely future necessity, Beckett’s family wanted the best for their son — so they sought the medical expertise of Mayo Clinic.

In November 2023, Beckett had an initial consultation and testing at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The care team at Mayo Clinic recommended that Beckett be put on the liver transplant list before he became more ill.

With stage 4 liver cirrhosis and a tremendously enlarged spleen, Beckett dealt with difficulty breathing due to his firm liver pressing against his diaphragm. Not only did he have a distended belly and chronic back pain from his liver disease and his enlarged spleen, but low platelet count put him at an increased risk of bleeding.

He had a yellow cast to his skin and was in end-stage liver disease — things that had just become normal for him. But his blood tests showed he was on the cusp of crisis.

The request to put Beckett on the transplant list was approved, and he was placed on the list in mid-February. During appointments with the liver transplant team, Beckett shared, "Maybe I'll get a liver by my birthday."

His birthday on April 1 was quickly approaching, and getting a liver often takes months, so getting his birthday wish seemed unlikely.

The Call That Changed Everything

Eleven days after Beckett officially went on the transplant list, Ron received a call from a Minnesota phone number.

"It'd only been a couple of weeks since we were in Rochester, and I thought maybe Mayo Clinic needed more information or was calling about another test," recalls Ron.

But the care team had something else in mind — a liver for Beckett.

The family had eight hours to get from North Dakota to Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Ron called Tracie home from work. He called the school to let them know a liver was available for Beckett and to send Beckett and his sister home immediately.

When the call came in, Beckett was in history class. "The teacher was about to start teaching, but then they said, 'Beckett, you can head to the office.' And I'm like, what for? I didn't think I was in trouble," Beckett says.

Rather than being in trouble, Beckett soon learned that he was in luck.

Out With the Old, In With the New

Timucin Taner, M.D., Ph.D., a transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic, performed Beckett's transplant on March 13 — just two weeks before his birthday.

"The only treatment for patients with cirrhosis is a liver transplant. Cirrhosis is a chronic disease that does not get better with other treatments," notes Dr. Taner. "Beckett needed a new liver, without any doubt. Without a transplant, Beckett would have continued to have jaundice, and his fatigue and other symptoms would have continued to get worse."

“I remember it vividly,” Tracie says. “I was astonished and grateful for the surgeon. Dr. Taner even took the time to wheel Beckett in his hospital bed down to the surgical suite.”

After hours of tenuous waiting, the transplant was a success. The transformation was noticeable. The night before the transplant, Beckett's eyes were yellow-tinted, but the morning after the transplant, they were already white, recalls Tracie.

Beckett recovered in the pediatric intensive care unit at Mayo Clinic for the next 10 days.

"I got the power-reclining bed with the remote and all the warm sheets I needed," says Beckett.

He was kind of sad to get discharged. He was getting like a five-star hotel experience. It says volumes about the care they got when somebody is sad to get discharged.

— Tracie Hoggarth

Visits from a Caring Equine miniature pony named Munchkin and a pet therapy dog named Benny Burrito were highlights of his stay.

"He was kind of sad to get discharged. He was getting like a five-star hotel experience," laughs Tracie. "It says volumes about the care they got when somebody is sad to get discharged."

Beckett and his parents note that all the staff they encountered were exceptionally kind and professional. The entire team — the pediatric intensive care unit doctors, his gastroenterologists, the nurses and the support staff — cared about Beckett and his journey.

Loving His New Liver

Since getting the transplant, Beckett can go on long walks. He has more energy, can breathe much better and has less back pain.

"I would get winded just walking, and I couldn't play football or participate in contact sports," says Beckett when thinking back to life before his transplant. "I felt stuffy after I drank or ate a lot. And then when I had my transplant, it felt like I had a lot more space."

Beckett's medication regimen has significantly improved. Previously, he endured a challenging schedule with many daily pills, a bitter-tasting oral medication, and daily self-administered injections. Now, he takes a set of pills in the morning and early evening.

Samar Ibrahim, M.B., Ch.B., a pediatric transplant hepatologist at Mayo Clinic, manages Beckett's ongoing care. Dr. Ibrahim routinely monitors Beckett's medication regimen and watches for signs of rejection or infection in his lab work.

"Beckett's new liver is functioning normally, so his symptoms of end-stage liver disease are gone," says Dr. Ibrahim. "He will get to live his life like any other teen and celebrate many more birthdays."

For Beckett and his family, receiving a new liver was the best birthday gift they could have imagined. "When he got the liver before his birthday, we were astonished," says Tracie. "We will be eternally grateful for that."

A version of this story was published on Mayo Clinic News Network.

The post Beckett’s Lifesaving Birthday Gift appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

His ability to fly and run again was restored thanks to a special procedure Mayo Clinic surgeons call "onco-regeneration" — a partnership between orthopedic oncologists and plastic surgeons that returns muscle strength and function to patients who have lost them after surgery to remove soft tissue sarcoma.

Had his condition occurred a few years earlier, Chris may not have made such a remarkable recovery from the severe calf pain that interrupted one of his regular evening jogs just before his 53rd birthday in 2019.

Chris’ wife, Davie, a nurse, insisted he seek medical attention after the swelling of his leg hadn’t subsided in a few days. Local providers initially diagnosed a pulled muscle. But three months later, a concerning lump remained on the back of his knee. An MRI revealed that he had cancer in his thigh.

Davie reached out to a contact she had at Mayo Clinic, Alexander Shin, M.D., an orthopedic hand and microvascular surgeon. It was recommended that Chris make an appointment at Mayo Clinic.

A Rare Diagnosis

Chris flew himself and Davie from their Overland Park, Kansas, home to Rochester, Minnesota, to meet with Mayo Clinic’s Matthew Houdek, M.D., an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and the fellowship director for musculoskeletal oncology.

Chris had myxoid liposarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer. Although it had been caught before it metastasized, Chris still needed five-day-a-week radiation sessions for five weeks, followed by surgery.

When Chris asked if he should go back home for treatment, Dr. Houdek’s response made the decision clear.

“I could see him thinking about how to nicely say it,” Chris recalls. “He said, ‘Well, I’m sure they’re good, but my team sees this type of cancer every day of the week. Most other places don’t see more than one of this type of cancer a year.’”

That was all it took for Chris to know he should stay at Mayo Clinic.

A Breakthrough Approach

Dr. Houdek and Steven Moran, M.D., a Mayo Clinic plastic surgeon, led the surgical team that operated on Chris in 2019. It quickly became clear there was no saving Chris’ hamstring. Cancer had consumed nearly all of it, and doctors took the rest.

To replace it, they took a latissimus dorsi muscle from Chris’ back and fashioned it into a new hamstring.

“They basically had to play the board game Operation with me,” Chris jokes. “It was amazing.”

The Road to Recovery

It was three months before Chris was allowed to put any weight on his leg. Six months later, he was able to walk up to three miles at a time.

“Mr. Reedy is a testament to how resilient patients with a soft tissue sarcoma are,” Dr. Houdek says. “He did the hard work in the recovery process to get to where he is now.”

By using onco-regeneration, Mayo Clinic surgeons had leveraged the body’s ability to regenerate muscle strength.

“It takes a team to be able to do these procedures,” Dr. Houdek says. “Thankfully we have the collaboration between us, our plastic surgeons, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists to advance functional outcomes for patients undergoing limb salvage surgery.”

Taking Flight Again

Two years after the surgery, Chris was back to jogging. But his real goal was to return to the cockpit.

Chris learned how to fly while in college and is the president and CEO of Butler National Corporation, an aerospace and professional services company. He worried he might not ever pilot a plane again.

“Flying is awesome,” says Chris, who shares two planes with his brother and uncle. “It devastated me to think about not being able to fly again. But Dr. Houdek was always so positive about regenerative medicine. He has outcomes that other people don’t.”

Cleared for Takeoff

Chris’ friends in the aviation community told him that if he could get a recommendation from Mayo Clinic, it would help him in his quest to get his pilot’s medical certificate back. Almost a year to the day from his surgery, with the help of Steven Robinson, M.B.B.S., he received a letter of recommendation from Mayo Clinic’s Section of Aerospace Medicine. Shortly thereafter, the Federal Aviation Administration provided a special medical authorization restoring his pilot privileges.

A 2022 recurrence of cancer also didn’t slow Chris down when a tumor was found on his spine. He sent his MRI results to Dr. Houdek, and a few days later Chris was in Rochester, being introduced to Peter Rose, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Rose removed the tumor from Chris’ back without hampering his mobility so that Chris could get back to what he loves — living life without limits.

“Within about a month, I was back in action,” Chris says. “Mayo Clinic doctors are phenomenal. They’re skilled and exceptionally intelligent, and they get back to you much quicker than other doctors do when you send them a message. They just take great care of you.”

The post Taking Flight Again appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Face in the Mirror: The Story Behind Mayo Clinic’s First Face Transplant

The following is an excerpt from Face in the Mirror by Jack El-Hai — a book that follows the journey of Andy Sandness, who received the first face transplant at Mayo Clinic. Proceeds are invested into furthering medical research and education at Mayo Clinic.

Andy felt calm when he checked into the Rochester hotel where he would spend the night before his face transplant began. He no longer felt scared. Focused on the surgery, he forgot to check on the outcome of the NHL Stanley Cup championship game that day, diehard sports fan though he was. As he prepared for bed, he strove to relax and mentally prepare himself for the momentous event ahead.

The next morning, transplant nurse coordinator Lori Ewoldt walked Andy the short distance from the hotel to Saint Marys. She was relieved to have been able to share some laughs with him the previous night after the ambulance finally made its rendezvous with his taxicab. It was hard not to look at him through a mother’s eyes. He was young enough to be her child. The calmness with which he faced the long surgery ahead impressed her.

After Andy’s admission to the hospital, Mayo Clinic plastic surgeon Samir Mardini, M.D., visited Andy in his room. He and Andy shook hands and started talking. Dr. Mardini explained some technicalities and paperwork they had to get out of the way. He presented Andy with the final consent forms to sign. They had spoken together many times previously about the risks and consequences of the surgery, but discussions just before serious operations often carry a stronger urgency than conversations that happen way in advance, when the surgery seems merely a possibility. Dr. Mardini asked Andy if he was certain he wanted to undergo the transplant.

“Yes, I’m ready,” Andy replied.

“We’re going to do the best we can,” Dr. Mardini said. “Do you have any questions?”

Research fellow Marissa Suchyta, M.D., Ph.D., was present, and Andy’s composure surprised her. “He was so ready for this to happen and had so much trust in the team that he had no hesitation signing those consent forms,” she said.

Hatem Amer, M.D., too evaluated Andy. He once again told Andy about the risks and possible complications of the face transplant. They also discussed Andy’s CMV mismatch with the donor’s tissues and the medications and treatments that could minimize any potential problems. Dr. Amer judged that the risk of Andy undergoing anesthesia was acceptable.

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Dr. Mardini asked Mayo photographer Eric Sheahan to take a portrait of Andy to record what Andy looked like before the face transplant. Sheahan introduced himself and explained his mission. He thought his request made Andy uncomfortable. Andy treated Sheahan kindly, but “there was tension in the room,” Sheahan said. Andy did not want to look at the camera, but Sheahan was able to capture images of Andy that showed his high emotions at the time.

Even though the face transplant would not start until the early morning hours of Saturday, the team was notified and ready by midafternoon on Friday. Dr. Mardini suggested to Karim Bakri, M.B.B.S., that they use the time remaining to go home and get some sleep. Both men returned home, but neither slept. Dr. Bakri and his wife had two small children. That week his mother-in-law was a houseguest. To maintain Andy’s privacy and the secrecy of the transplant, Dr. Bakri had to hide from her what he would be doing for the next three days. “She thought I was on call, except that I went out Friday night and didn’t come back until Monday,” he said. He added, smiling: “It was a complicated case, you know.”

Dr. Bakri did not feel stressed, but he was aware of the high expectations he, Dr. Mardini, and the other team members shouldered. They were going into a type of surgery that had never been attempted at Mayo, but their practice on cadavers had led them to believe it could be done successfully. Dr. Bakri described his feelings at the time as “not wanting to disappoint, wanting everything to go really smoothly in something that you’ve never done before.” He did not know what was going to happen, and he felt like he was taking a trip to the moon without knowing if he would be able to return to Earth.

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A LOOK INSIDE
FACE IN THE MIRROR

For years, they came in on weekends to plan and practice — nearly 60 surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists, preparing to harmonize in a vast medical symphony. For the team at Mayo Clinic, it was their most complex surgery to date: a face transplant.

At the heart of this event was Andy Sandness. He grappled with feelings of isolation and shame after a disfiguring suicide attempt but was determined to reclaim his future, to be seen as ordinary, and to belong again. Alongside him was Dr. Samir Mardini, a surgeon with an intense, unwavering desire to transform medicine and create a new life for his patient.

Their story — told over nearly two decades — is a poignant exploration of resilience, hope, and friendship, as well as an incredible account of medical breakthroughs and scientific discovery that reveals the strength of the human spirit, and the courage to rise above our scars.

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Early on Friday, Dr. Mardini held a team meeting. The group included Katie Weimer, vice president of 3D Corporation, the company that had provided the three-dimensional models the team used in its rehearsals. Weimer had been involved from the start in the virtual surgical planning aspects of the surgery. “The day has come,” Dr. Mardini said at the start of the meeting. “We have all put in so much time and effort and thought into this — we could not be more ready.” He felt no need to review the operation itself after so many rehearsals in the cadaver lab. Instead, Dr. Mardini presented a schedule for breaks to ensure a high-performing team at the transplant’s conclusion, when it would be needed most. He asked team members to take breaks when asked, and not do the courteous thing and offer to keep working.

Knowing the transplant surgery was imminent, ophthalmologist Elizabeth Bradley, M.D., had canceled all her other appointments starting Friday afternoon. After the meeting, Dr. Bradley needed stress relief, so she worked out at the on-site fitness center and returned to duty by late afternoon. Dr. Mardini let her and other members of the surgical team know that he would handle last-minute preparations and that they should take it easy, sleeping if possible, until later. The operation was still some hours off, and Dr. Bradley went home to rest. The call to report in came at 2 a.m. Saturday morning, awakening her. She was back at the hospital at 3 a.m.

Andy had presented himself for the face transplant in excellent physical condition, and he seemed to Dr. Mardini to be at prime readiness. The surgeon estimated that Andy had worked out five or six days per week before the operation in addition to his rigorous outdoor activities on the job. “He was healthy-looking and strong in his mind,” Dr. Mardini said. “He said he knew we were preparing hard, and he wanted to do the same.”

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Andy’s dad, Reed, was able to travel to Rochester on short notice for the operation (he ended up staying in Rochester for three months). After booking a hotel room across the street from the hospital, he got lost trying to find Andy’s hospital room. It took a while for him to find it, but he did. Just before the transplant began, Reed gave Dr. Mardini a handshake and a hug, and Andy told Reed he loved him.

Great care was to be taken with the nerve segments to ensure that Andy’s new facial muscles could accurately respond to signals from his brain. If it was done correctly, then when Andy wanted to smile, impulses from his brain would activate the corresponding transplanted facial nerves to correctly curve the mouth upward rather than close the mouth or perform another unintended movement. The same painstaking process would enable Andy to speak, cry, and perform other facial functions correctly. To ensure that all the nerves matched properly between the donor and Andy, Dr. Mardini asked Mayo resident Waleed Gibreel, M.B.B.S., who would later join Dr. Mardini’s craniofacial team at Mayo, and research fellow Dr. Suchyta to watch and double-check the videos showing the stimulation of the nerves of the donor and patient. Dr. Mardini and the team then knew with certainty which nerves to connect from Andy to the donor.

In Andy’s suite, Mayo’s videographers used an eerily silent overhead video system that they controlled from a console. It had an arm that rose above the surgery and shot straight down. It ran constantly, supplemented by footage from handheld cameras. “We got engaged,” Sheahan said. “We made sure the camera was where it needed to be. We didn’t let somebody stand in the way, and we spoke up when we needed to take a photo, because we were helping Andy [to] have greater success when we spoke up if something was not right.” Sheahan’s aggressive methods in the operating room, shooting in the intense quiet, led him to call himself “the surgeon’s henchman.”

“You weren’t just there to capture images,” said Mayo photographer Kevin Ness. “You engaged yourself in the surgery, so you knew what’s going on and you knew when there was a picture needed. And you were right there, and they didn’t even have to ask you to take a picture. You just did it.”

This photographic diligence was necessary not only to document the face transplant and crucially aid in the surgery but also to preserve what transpired in the surgical suites as a learning aid for surgeons and perhaps face transplants to come. The record of this long weekend for Andy and Dr. Mardini in Saint Marys would teach and inspire caregivers far into the future.

To follow the rest of Andy’s journey, read Face in the Mirror.

The post Face in the Mirror: The Story Behind Mayo Clinic’s First Face Transplant appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Positive Mindset, Mayo Clinic Care Put a Paralyzed Runner Back in the Race

Ask two-time marathon runner Ian Bowen why he runs and he’ll offer a simple answer: “Because I can.” That ability wasn't always a given.

At 32, Ian was diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis, a condition causing inflammation of the spinal cord and brain. Reaching this diagnosis required a spinal cord biopsy that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

With support from his Mayo Clinic physical and occupational therapists, he pushed hard toward recovery and running again. The initial goal was to relearn basics, like how to shave and dress.

“But that was nowhere near where my story was going to end,” he says.

Unusual Symptoms

In early 2009, Ian felt a tingling sensation in his right thigh. Over the course of about a week, it spread to his left leg and down both legs to his toes. Pain developed in his pectoral muscles, and it intensified when he would lie down to sleep.

Ian went to his family doctor, suspecting the chest pain might be from weightlifting. In past checkups, his doctor had always said he was the picture of health. 

He had two MRIs over the course of two weeks. The first suggested a mass on his spinal cord. The second confirmed the mass and that it was growing rapidly — but it wasn’t clear if it was cancer or another condition.

Ian’s doctor said he needed a specialist for an accurate diagnosis, fast. He left his home in Northwest Indiana for Mayo Clinic.

A Hard-Won Diagnosis

When Ian arrived in Rochester, Minnesota, his care team conducted thorough testing, from MRI imaging to blood, urine and spinal fluid analysis. But the results remained inconclusive.

His doctors couldn’t determine whether the mass was cancer or a condition known as neurosarcoidosis without taking a biopsy, a high-risk procedure given the mass’s location on the spinal cord. “They made it clear that this is a very risky surgery and you could be paralyzed for the rest of your life,” he recalls.

Ian opted for the biopsy. When he woke up from surgery, his doctors told him the good news: It wasn’t cancer. They could begin neurosarcoidosis treatment, which at the time typically involved prolonged courses of steroids. Today, there are also nonsteroidal neurosarcoidosis treatments available.

However, there was also challenging news. After the biopsy, he had significant weakness in his legs and a loss of sensation in his lower body.

It was now June. He had registered for a 5K that August, and his thoughts immediately turned to how soon he could train again. He was told he would probably walk someday with the assistance of a walker or cane, but running would be more difficult.

In that moment, Ian set a goal to run a marathon despite never running more than four miles before in his life.

Joy Through Recovery

Ian worked with Mayo Clinic physical and occupational therapists over several weeks to regain motion while relearning skills to function at home. Rachel Linbo, a therapist on his care team, was frequently by his side. “In the beginning, she would move my legs just to help my brain remember how to move,” he says.

As feeling slowly returned, they progressed to more challenging tasks. “As an athlete, when you have an injury — especially if you are training for a run — you want to be better yesterday,” Ian says. “Rachel was always open to me wanting to push the envelope.”

If you have your brain energy and heart energy in alignment, I truly believe you can accomplish what is said to be the impossible. I am living proof of that.

— IAN BOWEN

In Rachel, Ian found a supporter whose positive attitude matched his own. “Rachel was always open and happy, and I think that’s why we got along so well,” he says. “She was exactly what I needed.”

Before leaving Mayo Clinic, Ian connected with a therapist at home who would continue helping him work toward his goals. Rachel expected that he would keep regaining function.

“But if you asked me if he would run a marathon, I would never have predicted that,” she says.

Ready to Race

Ian still had that 5K race on the calendar, and he was determined to be at the starting line — and two months after his surgery, he made it a whole mile with his walker before stopping.

About 18 months after surgery, he started walking without a cane. The next year, he ran a full 5K. That fueled Ian even more, and longer distances followed.

When Rachel saw on social media that Ian had run a half-marathon, she sent him a message: “This is amazing.”

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In 2022, Ian completed the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon at a 14-minute-per-mile pace, and in 2024, he ran the Med City Marathon in Rochester, beating his previous time by a full hour.

When he crossed the finish line, Rachel was there cheering, along with other members of his Mayo Clinic care team, including neurosurgeons William E. Krauss, M.D., and Jamie J. Van Gompel, M.D.; Amy Sikkink, a therapy technician instrumental in his recovery; and Mark W. Christopherson, M.D., his physiatrist, who is now an emeritus physician.

“I was shocked,” Ian says. “It was amazing that these people who hadn’t seen me since 2009 remembered me and cared enough to come out and support me.”

Great Strides in Neurosarcoidosis Diagnosis

Neurosarcoidosis symptoms can come in many forms, including sensory changes in the arms and legs, bladder dysfunction, constipation, hearing loss, walking problems, and weakness in the face and limbs, says Mayo Clinic neurologist W. Oliver Tobin, M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O., Ph.D. The onset of symptoms is slower than for other inflammatory conditions, such as multiple sclerosis. 

It’s unlikely that a patient today would receive a spinal cord biopsy, says Dr. Tobin. In the years since Ian’s biopsy, Mayo Clinic neurologists have developed advanced diagnostic techniques that allow physicians to identify neurosarcoidosis from MRI images and spinal cord fluid with greater confidence and lower risk.

A Mindset Message

Ian has continued to make great progress in his recovery and professional life. He uses his story to inspire others — both at the gym he now owns and through his work as a motivational speaker.

Ian attributes his remarkable recovery to his Mayo Clinic care team and his positive mindset. “If you have your brain energy and heart energy in alignment, I truly believe you can accomplish what is said to be the impossible,” he says. “I am living proof of that.”

The post Positive Mindset, Mayo Clinic Care Put a Paralyzed Runner Back in the Race appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Although she had been looking forward to getting her license for a long time, she couldn’t sit without being in pain. The sporadic numbness in her leg only made things worse.

In the spring of her freshman year, Miranda took a hard fall on her tailbone. The following fall, despite the lingering pain, she pushed through to run on her high school’s cross-country team in Wayzata, Minnesota. As the season wore on, however, the pain in her back became unbearable — and she was forced to stop running.

Two days after her birthday, when the periodic numbness in her left leg and foot evolved into a complete loss of feeling, she knew something was seriously wrong.

A Life-Changing Diagnosis

An MRI revealed Miranda had a 6-inch, inoperable tumor at the base of her spine.

Nadia N. Laack, M.D., the pediatric oncologist who treated Miranda at Mayo Clinic, confirmed through a biopsy that the cancer was Ewing sarcoma — one of the most common pediatric bone tumors. Unfortunately, the news got worse: The cancer had already spread.

“She had metastatic disease to her lungs, and she was told that she had about a 10% chance of survival,” says Dr. Laack, the Hitachi Professor of Radiation Oncology Research.

But that number didn’t faze her. “I’m a pediatric oncologist — we're eternal optimists. That’s the only way we can do this job. Every patient is a 10%, right?”

When asked if Miranda would benefit from proton beam therapy, Dr. Laack knew they had to give it a shot.

Targeted Treatment, Greater Hope

Unlike traditional X-ray therapy, which affects all tissue in its path, proton beam therapy offers precise control, enabling specialists to focus radiation directly on the tumor while reducing harm to the surrounding healthy tissue.

For Miranda, this precision was critical. X-ray radiation therapy would have treated her entire pelvis, including the uterus, which would no longer be able to accommodate a growing baby. Proton beam therapy allowed for a more targeted approach. One of her ovaries was wrapped up in the tumor, but through proton beam therapy, the other could be shielded. This meant a chance at preserving her fertility.

“Dr. Laack and her team tacked one of my ovaries out of the line of radiation. This forethought gave me the best chance possible at conceiving naturally,” Miranda says. “The fact they moved the other ovary was absolutely life-changing.”

In addition to protecting the uterus and the remaining ovary during proton beam therapy, Dr. Laack designed a comprehensive treatment plan that gave Miranda the greatest likelihood of recovery. She underwent concurrent chemotherapy at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and proton beam therapy at Mayo Clinic to target the Ewing sarcoma, along with radiation to treat the cancer in her lungs.

“I was very grateful to be able to commute to Mayo Clinic and still go home at night,” Miranda says. “It’s amazing that this treatment was available in my backyard.”

A Future Once Unimaginable

In February 2016, Miranda completed her last proton beam treatment. Since then, she has graduated magna cum laude from the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, landed her dream job, met the love of her life, got married, bought a house and had her first child.

“I wanted to find love, own a house and start a family,” she says. “Those were my main priorities after I beat cancer — to live life and live it to the fullest with no time wasted.”

While Miranda has accomplished a lot since her last treatment, one of the most meaningful chapters of Miranda’s journey has been welcoming her son, Everett, into the world. She and her husband, Alec, now center their days around his happiness, giggles and cuddles.

“Mayo Clinic listened to my fears, my hopes and my dreams. It wasn’t enough to simply cure me — they went above and beyond to ensure my quality of life would be the best it possibly could be,” she says. “They understood how important being a mother was to me and acted accordingly. I am forever grateful to Dr. Laack and her team for their contribution to helping me have my miracle baby.”

Miranda had no complications during pregnancy, and she credits the care she received years earlier at Mayo Clinic for making the experience smooth once it came time to start a family. “These are the reasons why it’s important for us to be able to bring in these new technologies to help our patients,” Dr. Laack says.

Looking Ahead

Miranda and Alec have started talking about having another child in the next few years. There’s no rush though — for now, they’re savoring this time with Everett. Because Mayo Clinic made it possible for her to have one child, Miranda is hopeful she can have another.

In her free time, she continues to give back, such as serving on the board of Rein in Sarcoma, a resource for patients and families affected by these uncommon and often misdiagnosed bone and soft tissue cancers.

Looking back, Miranda says she wishes she could tell her 16-year-old self — a young girl who had just received a life-altering diagnosis — how much life was still ahead. What once seemed uncertain has become a life filled with purpose and promise.

“If I could tell her that I would not only survive cancer, but find the love of my life, marry, own a beautiful house on a river, work my dream job and have a child — all by the age of 25 — I don’t think any part of me would have dared dream that big in the moment,” she says. “Simply put, I have a future to look forward to because of Mayo Clinic."

Carey Stanton contributed to this story.

The post A Mother’s Miracle: How Proton Beam Therapy Preserved Miranda’s Fertility appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

In 2020, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) after muscle weakness began to affect his movement. ALS is a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Worsening over time, ALS affects control of the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe. 

"You get this diagnosis, and you know, within three to five years, you're no longer," Dr. Parekh says.  

He was familiar with the disease long before his own diagnosis.  

"My father lived with ALS," Dr. Parekh says. "I know time is of the essence."  

Initially working with a care team closer to home, Dr. Parekh and Tejal were determined to find a way forward to preserve his quality of life and possibly help others, including their children, who have a chance of inheriting the gene mutation. The couple began messaging physicians, researchers and friends around the world. That's when they learned about the work of Bjorn Oskarsson, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist.  

A Personalized Approach  

Dr. Oskarsson and colleagues at Mayo Clinic have spent their careers looking for answers and options for people diagnosed with ALS. A multidisciplinary care team met with Dr. Parekh in May 2021 and began tests to determine the best way forward.  

"We worked with our outside partner to develop an individualized treatment made just for him," Dr. Oskarsson says.  

The therapy aims to stop protein production by targeting the gene mutation and halting the progression of the disease. After nearly two years of testing and preparations, Dr. Parekh's first treatment was an injection in his spine in April 2024. 

"He is the first person in the world to have received this treatment," Dr. Oskarsson says.  

He would make the trip from Orlando to Jacksonville twice over the next two months. From there, he was placed on a dosage that only required him to travel for treatment once every three months. 

"More than just ourselves, this would be a step forward for all the other people getting diagnosed with ALS,” Tejal says. “It would be something for them — hope.”  

A New Outlook 

One year after treatment started, the results are exciting to the Parekhs and Dr. Oskarsson. 

"This is something that is truly new, and one day we will get there for everyone," Dr. Oskarsson says. "And when that happens, there's nothing that compares. It's a beautiful thing." 

Back home, Dr. Parekh reflects on how this treatment has changed his outlook. His 25 years working in healthcare did not prepare him for what it would be like to receive care, let alone a therapy that may benefit his children one day. 

"Not only has it made an impact on our lives, but honestly, it's made an impact on the way I practice because I realize now what patients need beyond healthcare," Dr. Parekh says. 

A version of this story was published on Mayo Clinic News Network.

The post Florida Dad Receives First-in-World ALS Treatment appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

He was prescribed antibiotics, but his symptoms worsened. When Craig began to pass blood, his wife insisted that they drive straight to Mayo Clinic in Rochester — about an hour and a half away. There, Mayo Clinic physicians diagnosed him with metastatic urothelial cancer, or bladder cancer, which had spread to his spine.

Craig recalls receiving a phone call late that night from his Mayo Clinic doctor, who asked him if he wanted to just maintain his health for a few years or cure his cancer.

"I said, 'I'd like you to cure it,'" says Craig.

Seeking a Cure

Craig’s father had been a farmer, which was Craig’s dream too. But his father suggested he gain additional skills to supplement his farming income. Following his father's advice and encouragement from his high school welding teacher, Craig pursued his teaching certificate in welding. What he initially thought would be five or six years of teaching turned into a 45-year career developing welding programs at several local schools while also raising cattle and growing soybeans and corn on his 2,000-acre farm. Through his welding programs, he has trained several welders now employed by local manufacturing companies.

After his diagnosis in 2023, Craig took a hiatus from teaching and farming to focus on his cancer treatments at Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato, which included chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy.

Metastatic urothelial cancer that has spread beyond the bladder usually is considered incurable and inoperable. However, Craig responded well to chemotherapy and radiation to his spine, which made his oncologist, Jacob Orme, M.D., Ph.D., and urologist, Paras Shah, M.D., consider Craig for a new surgical approach to treatment.

Craig proceeded with the proposed surgery and had his bladder, prostate and 36 lymph nodes removed.

"In Mr. Smith's bladder, we found viable cancer cells that would have led to a relapse. Now, however, he is nearly two years from diagnosis and remains disease-free," says Dr. Shah.

Craig’s positive response to treatment and surgery has spurred a clinical trial testing this aggressive approach in other patients with bladder cancer. Currently, 17 participants are enrolled, and the results so far have been promising.

A Path Forward

Advances in cancer treatment, such as immunotherapy that harnesses the body's immune system to fight cancer and the identification of biomarkers in the blood or urine that show how well a patient is responding to treatment, are helping the physicians select who will benefit most from surgery.

"The impetus for this study is to attack the cancer from multiple approaches, including treatments that cover head to toe and treatments that are directed right at the source tumor," says Stephen Boorjian, M.D., who is the David and Anne Luther Chair of Urology at Mayo Clinic and a lead proponent of the study.

"We want to remove the root of the cancer after we've burned off the leaves," adds Dr. Orme.

A team of researchers, physicians and clinical trials staff expedited the clinical trial through an accelerated pathway called a Rapid Activation Trial. It's part of a larger effort at Mayo Clinic to launch new clinical trials swiftly and effectively.

"Shortening activation timelines allows us to make a difference to more patients and their families," says Michelle Monosmith, Mayo Clinic Office of Clinical Trials operations administrator.

The study is supported by a generous gift by Ronald J. and Carol T. Beerman to Mayo Clinic. Dr. Boorjian and Elisabeth Heath, M.D., chair of Oncology, are prioritizing this effort to achieve more cures for men and women with bladder cancer.

"Our only goal is to help our patients live better and longer," says Dr. Orme.

That's what Craig plans to do as he continues to farm, teach and spend time with his family.

A version of this story was published on Mayo Clinic News Network.

The post Farmer Inspires New Potential Bladder Cancer Treatment appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

With her plans for her future pushed aside, Brescia's focus was now on her health and hope. It's an unexpected chapter facing an increasing number of adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer.

Brescia's Dream

At 4 years old, it was clear Brescia had a flare for creativity. She readily admits she was never one to miss an opportunity to play dress-up, draw pictures or tell a story. 

"Being creative has always been at the core of what I do," she says. Early on, she developed a love for photography and videography. Brescia's dream was to pursue a career that allowed her to put her creative energy to work. 

After high school, Brescia's passion led her to college to study film and media production. She even traveled to Italy to study abroad. After her Italian adventure, Brescia returned to the U.S. to finish college. First, she went to her doctor for her annual checkup. 

 "I lived a really healthy, balanced lifestyle," says Brescia. "My doctor found swelling on the side of my neck. I hadn't noticed the swelling and didn't have any symptoms." Brescia was sent for an ultrasound followed by a surgical biopsy. 

The Diagnosis

The surgical biopsy revealed Brescia had Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer. "Being diagnosed with cancer at 20 years old was so scary, and I wouldn't wish that on any 20-year-old," says Brescia. "I think about the young version of me who just found out she had cancer, and I just wish I could give her a hug." 

Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system. Brescia says the news came as a shock because she felt healthy and had no family history of cancer. "It felt like there was something I could have done to prevent it, but I learned that there's nothing I could have done," says Brescia. 

Navigating Life With Cancer

"When I was going through college and diagnosed with cancer, it was not what I was expecting," says Brescia. "Being a young adult with cancer was very hard and challenging. It is scary and can be very frightening." 

At 20 years old, Brescia falls into a group of patients referred to as adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer. AYA patients are between the ages of 15 and 39. Experts say AYA patients face a distinct set of challenges. 

"One of the reasons this age group is so important is based on their life stage — the things they uniquely face, like body image, disruption in school and work, financial challenges, feeling isolation," says Allison Rosenthal, D.O., with the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Doctor and Cancer Survivor

Dr. Rosenthal knows firsthand the challenges AYA patients face. "I had leukemia in medical school. There were a lot of missed opportunities in my care to recognize the issues that I might face as a 24-year-old woman," explains Dr. Rosenthal. 

Putting her experience into action, Dr. Rosenthal championed Mayo Clinic's Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program. The program is tailored to meet the unique needs of AYA patients to include medical care, fertility concerns, social and relationship issues, school and work concerns, and the personal and emotional impact of cancer in this age group. 

Brescia underwent about four months of chemotherapy treatment under the care of Dr. Rosenthal. "She did a beautiful job of explaining to me what the process was going to look like and what my treatment plan was going to look like. Because I'm so young, she walked me through the whole process," says Brescia.

Cancer-Free and Focused on the Future

After her cancer treatments, Brescia returned to college and got her degree. She started her own marketing agency providing social media management, videography, photography and brand development with her personal creative touch. She also celebrated her five-year anniversary of being cancer-free. 

"I also have a podcast called the Checkered Jaguar where I get to have incredible conversations with people, share their stories and connect people who may be going through similar challenges that I went through," says Brescia. "We're all in this journey together, and just being open and vulnerable with my journey — as challenging as it may be — I feel like it connects me to people all around the world." 

This article was originally published in Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Blog. 

The post Navigating Life as a Young Adult With Cancer: Brescia’s Story appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

A Phoenix Rising

The Phoenix represents Kelli 2.0. Kelli 2.0 is not the Kelli Bartol of a few years ago. Kelli says that version was “a very my-way-or-the-highway person.”

Instead, Kelli 2.0 has been thoroughly transformed since her cancer diagnosis. She’s still facing health challenges, but she’s also living each day to the fullest.

“I’m just happy to be here and not that type A personality anymore,” says Kelli, who lives in Golden Valley, Minnesota. “Everything I went through changed me at a core level.”

She says there’s a good chance she might not be around today without her Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center care team, led by Patrick McGarrah, M.D. They’ve provided Kelli with expert treatment for more than three years, helping her reach some important milestones.

When Kelli was originally diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma in 2021, her goal was to live long enough to see her son, Aiden, graduate from high school. With Aiden currently in his second year of college, she has a new goal: watching Aiden’s college graduation.

“I can honestly say I love Dr. McGarrah,” she says. “He has been my partner in crime in this and so supportive. And I’m so lucky to live near Mayo Clinic. I’m only an hour and a half away. Everybody on the team is always wonderful. I’ve never had a bad experience at Mayo.”

Kelli started chemotherapy after her diagnosis at a local provider. She tolerated it well, until the day her face suddenly began to turn purple.

Soon after, Kelli found herself waking up from a coma — one she had been in for over a week.

“It turned out that I had blood clots in my heart, my lungs, my neck and my leg,” she says. “They tried everything they could to get rid of them without going in surgically and nothing worked. They had to open up my chest, and while they did that I had a bad reaction to something, swelled up, and they put me in a medically induced coma.”

As she awoke, Kelli was informed by her doctors she had two potential courses for treatment. The wrong one, they said, would kill her.

At that point, she turned back to Mayo for guidance on a life-or-death decision.

“Mayo Clinic did all the blood work and said, ‘This is what we think your platelet issue is and this is the way we’re going to treat it,’” she says.

“The treatment worked. There were other obstacles — there were about five close calls with death along the way — but they finally got me out of rehab and into chemotherapy. They were able to shrink the tumor enough so that we could do surgery to remove about 20 lymph nodes.”

Kelli, who has always had a creative streak, knew she needed to have an outlet as she healed from her surgery. Her options were limited by the effects of her illness — she had virtually no mobility after waking from the coma. Even today neuropathy has limited the dexterity in her hands and feet.

She decided to go with watercolors. She had taken a class and painted some prior to the cancer diagnosis, but now the inherent nature of watercolors resonated deeply with her.

“The beauty is in the imperfection,” she says. “I was such a perfectionist, and I needed something to help me let go. Watercolor doesn’t go perfectly. It’s liquid, it’s water. It goes where it wants to. Sometimes the color isn’t quite right, and you have to paint more or do it over.”

When Kelli completed her first work postsurgery, she gave it to Dr. McGarrah, who had become part of her care team during his oncology training and stayed with her as he transitioned onto faculty. The painting she gave him, shown above, is a watercolor of a phoenix that integrates images taken by pathologists of her tumors.

She transformed the tail feathers into peacock feathers, “so they have that big, bold, colorful part in the center,” and she replaced the centers of those peacock feathers with her cancer cells.

Kelli’s decision to incorporate her cancer in her art was made to represent how much her medical experience has changed her — from that demanding version of Kelli to Kelli 2.0, someone who knows she is diminished physically but feels she has become a better person.

“Kelli is an amazing woman and a very special patient for me personally,” Dr. McGarrah says. “She has been through almost unimaginable ups and downs, but always displays such grace, kindness and humor at each of our visits, whether the news is good or bad. It’s such a privilege to be a part of her cancer journey.”

I was such a perfectionist, and I needed something to help me let go.

— Kelli Bartol

The post A Phoenix Rising appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.