Another Picture to Add to the Jersey...
Every year when I ride the PMC I attach photos to the back of my jersey of friends and family who have either passed away or beaten cancer. Unfortunately, I have too many pictures to fit them all. This year I will be adding yet another one:
Steve Wengal was the brother of a friend. In 2015, after we connected on Facebook, Steve began donating to my PMC ride.
According to his brother, twenty-seven years ago, Steve had been just another perfectly healthy athletic professional in his early 30s. Then he woke one day and could not feel his legs. After several months of treatment under various specialists in Boston, it was determined he had contracted Spinal Neurosarcoidosis – a rare version of sarcoid that attacks the spine instead of the lungs. However, the damage done to his spine by this point was irreversible, and he would spend the next decade walking with the help of double crutches, and eventually would need a wheelchair to get around.
Fast forward to 2020. Steve was scheduled to get his regular colonoscopy but he decided to postpone it because he didn’t want to get exposed to Covid-19. This decision would eventually cost him his life, and ironically, in the next six months, Covid was just about the only thing that didn’t contribute to his eventual death.
If Steve had kept the colonoscopy appointment, the clinicians would have discovered and cleared the blockage that was forming in his colon. But, without the findings from the colonoscopy, the blockage was able to slowly, secretly grow until he had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. A biopsy revealed a minor cancerous growth in his colon that may have metastasized. After he had recovered from the surgery, Steve was going to need to undergo chemotherapy treatment to ensure the cancer did not spread.
Due to his Neurosarcoidosis, Steve was no stranger to the emergency room. He most recently contracted MRSA in his thumb as a result of cutting himself on the rim of his wheelchair. His thumb turned purple and swelled to twice its normal size – but as the doctors were considering amputating the thumb (to hopefully stop the spread and save his life) the MRSA cleared up, he made a full recovery and went home. This time, however, was much different.
Without workable legs, everyday tasks – like getting out of bed or getting into a car – can require gymnast-like moves. After such a serious operation, Steve had to undergo months of bedridden recovery at a rehab center before he could even think of starting chemotherapy. But as a result of being bedridden, some skin boils eventually formed – requiring additional surgeries. Also, since Steve had no feeling from the waist down, he was never aware that he had broken his hip at some point and that the fracture had also gotten infected. Steve survived the 5-hour surgery to correct the hip fracture and infection, however, he was not coming out from under anesthesia. Hours turned into days, finally a week later Steve woke up – but he was not talking. Everyone feared he might have brain damage but a couple days later he was back to normal and on the road to recovery. Family and friends drew a collective sigh of relief – Steve had beaten the odds again!
But shortly after this, things went south quickly. Maybe it was a reaction between the numerous medications he was taking, another undetected infection, a blood clot, or maybe his heart just gave out after months of punishment. Either way, one morning he suddenly became unresponsive and was rushed back to the ER. The doctors and nurses, who had gotten to know him pretty well over the last few months, did all they could to revive him. Eventually they got a faint pulse but it was too little, too late and they had to let him go.
Steve had always been a fighter, but maybe this time the uphill battle he was facing – where victory would have been rewarded with months of chemotherapy treatment – was just too much for his body to bear. Ironically, after six months of exposure at various hospitals and rehab centers, Steve never contracted Covid. We all knew no SINGLE thing could bring him down, so it took an army of diseases and infections to finally do it. But if he was here today, I know he would definitely tell anyone who would listen to not put off their regularly scheduled colonoscopy; it’s a nuisance, but it could save your life!
I wish I got to know Steve better.
Today would have been Steve’s 58th birthday.
100% of every donation goes directly to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and supports cancer research and also supports patient care.
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My 2021 Fundraising Goal: $10,000
My 2021 Stretch Goal: $12,406 ($100k Lifetime)
My Progress Towards that Goal: 66% (53% Stretch)
