A FORMER Renmark man who underwent both a stem cell and heart transplant due to a chronic disease has been labelled a “miracle man” by his supportive family.
Lyall Pearce, 56, of Adelaide, was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis with cardiac complications in his early 50s and was given a little of 18 months to live.
Mr Pearce, who is married to former local Tran Young and a father to two adult sons, said he was unaware of the severity of his condition when the symptoms began.
“When I hit my 50th birthday, I thought about my grandmother and how she lived to 100,” he said.
“It was at that moment when I asked myself what my plans for the next 50 years are.
“It was shortly after I noticed a decline in my fitness, which subsequently led to approximately six months of tests before being diagnosed with AL amyloidosis with cardiac complications.
“I was told the disease was terminal and I didn’t have much longer left, but I’m still here and you can’t get rid of me that easily.”
Mr Pearce said the disease precluded him from having a transplant but he decided to proceed to a transplant as part of a clinical trial in Sydney.
“Professor John Moore at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Private Hospital was conducting a clinical trial for patients in precisely my condition, which led to the heart transplant and subsequently the autogulous stem cell transplant,” he said.
“I was the eighth person to undergo the trial, with patients given the heart transplant so they could survive the stem cell transplant.
“My old heart would not have coped with only the stem cell transplant.”
Mr Pearce said the surgeries happened over a period of eight months.
“My heart transplant happened last July and my stem cell transplant happened last month,” he said.
“The stem cell transplant was an injection that killed off the bone marrow then a few days later I was injected with cells harvested from myself a couple of years ago.
“The stem cells regrow the bone marrow minus all the immunities I have accumulated over a lifetime, so until I redo my immunisations in around six months, it’s hello measles, chicken pox and/or diseases like that.”
Mr Pearce has spent six of the past nine months in Sydney.
St Vincent Private Hospital has supplied accommodation for country and interstate patients and carers.
Mr Pearce said although recovery has been tough, he is staying positive.
“For me, I found that recovering from the stem cell surgery was worse, probably because I was aware the whole time,” he said.
“My sister, Veronica, would say my heart transplant was, due to the complications in which I was unaware of for more than three weeks.
“The lead-up to both surgeries though felt fine to me because I told myself that there’s nothing a new set of batteries won’t fix.”