At the Monday, August 28, Kernels baseball game, the players, staff, and fans will recognize a woman who had a bone marrow transplant 23 years ago as part of the Home Run for Life program. Jane Scheer, along with health care professionals at UI Hospitals and Clinics who cared for her and continue to care for her, will circle the bases while her story is told.
Flash back to 1983...Ronald Reagan was President, we'd seen the first space shuttle walk and the invasion of Grenada. "Flash Dance" and "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" were the movie box office hits, the group Toto won album of the year, Microsoft Word was first released, and Scheer just finished her junior year at Benton Community High School.
Returning from the summer band trip, Jane noticed bruises on her body. After a routine physical and blood test she was told she had CML, chronic myelogenous leukemia. Jane and her family were referred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to confirm the diagnosis with a bone marrow test and to discuss options with Roger Gingrich, MD, PhD, from the Adult Blood and Marrow Transplantion Program.
At 17 years of age, Jane decided to pursue bone marrow transplantation at UI Hospitals and Clinics. Her two sisters were tested as possible matches—miraculously her oldest sister was a near perfect match. The transplant was scheduled for August 19, 1983, just prior to what should have been the start of her senior year of high school.
After an up and down two-month stay, which, included 39 days in isolation, the UI Hospitals and Clinic's staff sent Jane home. Through the support of family, friends, school, and Jane's determination, she was able to finish her senior year in and out of the hospital. She even attended homecoming and graduated with her class.
Jane went on to graduate from the University of Northern Iowa in business and has worked ever since—currently at RBC Dain Rauscher.
Jane still meets with her bone marrow transplant doctor annually to discuss medical advancement that may help with organ rejection issues. One of the major side effects related to the transplant is decrease in lung capacity.
Jane functions with 50 percent lung capacity. She recently started working with Thomas Gross, MD, in the UI Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program to improve quality of her life at "39-something." This doesn't keep her from enjoying life including traveling, hunting, wine tasting—living life to its fullest.
After 23 years, The University of Iowa has become part of her family.
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For more information:
Roger Gingrich, MD, PhD
Thomas Gross, MD
Adult Blood and Marrow Transplantion Program
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program
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