This year is all about the Survivors!
Brandon Nuechterlein’s relationship with Children’s Hospital Colorado started in dramatic fashion 17 years ago when he arrived emaciated and nearly dead after a 26-hour flight from Asia.
“Leukemia,” the hematology-oncology fellow at Children’s had said. “He’ll need a bone marrow transplant.”
Thus the journey began to Denver, the family’s home before moving to Thailand to be near his grandmother when Nuechterlein was 6 years old. He went through two years of chemotherapy, infections and a bone marrow transplant (BMT) before coming to Children’s 17 years ago as a physician assistant working with kids who often remind him of his younger self.
As traumatic as the hospitalization was, Nuechterlein, became intrigued and decided he wanted a career in BMT.
“It’s awful being sick, but it isn’t awful being here,” he says. “After seeing what the doctors did, their dedication, I knew I wanted to be involved.”
Enduring a near-death experience during treatment in Thailand may have helped him warm to his caretakers in Denver by eliminating his fear of dying.
“I was floating above everyone, and they were all running around like crazy. It’s just like you hear about; there were lights in the corner. I remember deciding this is really going to be terrible, but I’m going back. I was slammed into instantaneous pain so bad that you cannot imagine. After that, I knew I would live.”
The lack of fear continued into recovery, to his doctors’ consternation.
“The doctors teased me that they would take away my graft because I was jumping out of airplanes, (skiing) down mountains at 50 mph,” he says.
As soon as he was well enough to get his GED, he started classes at CU Denver, then, two weeks after graduating with a degree in psychology, he started on his physician assistant degree at Anschutz Medical Campus. He chose the PA route over an MD because he knew it would mean more time with patients.
Doing his rotations at Children’s was like coming home. “All the doctors here have treated me at one time or another.”
He tells every patient about his own disease and recovery.
“It gives them hope. It’s one thing to hear doctors talk about the numbers and survival rates, and it’s another thing to meet me. I had a very poor chance of survival. I was way sicker than most of them are. And it all turned out in the end.”
Joining the Wheels of Justice was a natural extension of this journey. It helped him to improve his own health and that of his friends and family as well. He has recruited over 30 riders to the team and the extended Nuechterlein family has now raised over $810,000 to support the CCBD.
