Before leukemia entered his life, veteran Forrest Buskirk was settling into retirement with his wife, Kim. After two and a half years in Michigan caring for her father, they returned to Maryland, where Forrest found comfort in familiar routines, including early morning golf, restoring his blue convertible, and tending his garden.
That rhythm changed in the yard one afternoon. “I was pushing mulch into place, and I suddenly ran out of breath,” Forrest recalls. A couple of days later, his primary care physician took one look at his pale fingernails and sent him to the emergency department right away. Tests showed severe anemia, and the results set off a chain of urgent questions leading to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer that starts in the blood and bone marrow.
A diagnosis with no time to wait
Facing a diagnosis that would require specialized care, Forrest chose the Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, where he met Jennifer Kanakry, MD, medical director and hematologist, and Kamil Rechache, MD, a hematologist/oncologist. It is home to the most experienced adult, FACT-accredited program in the Washington, D.C., region, with more than 10 years of expertise in both allogeneic and autologous transplants. In addition, our program provides access to multiple innovative clinical trials. From the beginning, the team focused on building a plan that could address Forrest’s leukemia quickly while surrounding him with the expertise he would need at each step. His care team chose to move forward with an allogeneic stem cell transplant.
That care included Kimberley Doucette, MD, hematologist/oncologist, who helped guide Forrest’s early treatment decisions. To begin fighting the leukemia right away, he received intensive chemotherapy medicine that combined two cancer-fighting drugs in one treatment, giving his team a powerful way to attack the disease while easing the toll on his body.
As chemotherapy got to work against the leukemia, his team talked with him about what a stem cell transplant would involve – an approach that offered the strongest chance for a cure. “From the first conversations, I felt like they were in my corner,” Forrest says. “They explained things clearly, and I trusted them right away.”
Dr. Kanakry describes that an allogeneic stem cell transplant works by using a healthy donor’s immune system to fight cancer. “The donor’s immune system takes hold and does what it’s designed to do. It recognizes what does not belong, like leukemia, and attacks it,” she said. “With modern approaches, we’re increasingly able to eliminate cancer while protecting healthy tissue.”
“Quality of life mattered to Forrest, but so did the chance to live longer,” Dr. Recache said. “That reality shaped every decision we made with Forrest and his family.” With those priorities guiding the plan, he completed testing to make sure his heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver could handle it. Meanwhile, his team searched national and international registries for a donor whose tissue type closely matched his, since a strong match can help the new cells take hold and lower the risk of complications. When they found one, Forrest says, “it felt like we could finally get started.”
A second chance takes shape
Not long after a donor was identified, Forrest received his stem cell transplant “It looked like a regular bag of blood,” he says, “but I knew it meant a second chance.” About ten days later, tests showed the donor cells had engrafted, meaning they had settled in and started making healthy new blood cells. “That’s when I finally felt like I could breathe again.”
That milestone became what Forrest calls his “second birthday.” Nurses surprised him with handmade cards, Forrest brought donuts to share, and Kim arrived with a Boston cream cupcake. Then, about 100 days after stem cell transplant, a bone marrow biopsy showed no leukemia. “That day changed everything. Hearing that made all the hard days worth it,” he says.
From diagnosis through recovery, Forrest’s care stayed coordinated across settings and the support staff stayed connected so changes could be managed quickly. Nutrition support and rehabilitation helped him rebuild strength through fatigue and weight loss. A clinical pharmacist experienced in hematology and oncology walked him through his medications and what to expect. When side effects needed extra attention, infectious disease, kidney, and skin specialists joined his team.
Today, he remains under close monitoring and continues treatments to strengthen his immune system. His most recent bone marrow biopsy, as he says with relief, “came back clean.” He is rebuilding stamina with daily walks and easing back into the routines he loves. “I take it one day at a time,” he says. “But I’m here, and I’ll always celebrate my second birthday.”
For more information or for an appointment call 202-993-0492 or visit MedStarHealth.org/StemCell.