"Transplantation was no mean feat" Philipp Fankhauser jumped off the brink of death
Philipp Fankhauser was saved from death by a stem cell transplant. Now the blues musician reveals in an interview that he had almost given up on life shortly before the operation.
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- Philipp Fankhauser thought about giving up in his fight against leukemia and an autoimmune disease.
- Without a stem cell transplant, however, the 60-year-old blues musician's life expectancy would only have been one or two years.
- "The transplant was still not a piece of cake, but the result is fantastic," says Fankhauser in an interview with "Südostschweiz".
Blues musician and songwriter Philipp Fankhauser has repeatedly thought about giving up in his fight against leukemia and an autoimmune disease.
Without a stem cell transplant, his life expectancy would have been another year or two, says the 60-year-old from the Bernese Oberland in an interview with "Südostschweiz".
Shortly before the transplant last year, he felt a tremendous amount of anxiety and his initial optimism evaporated. Fankhauser doubted whether he would survive the disease.
The doctor had "nursed him up" for 20 years
His doctor then told him quite resolutely that it was out of the question to forgo the planned transplant.
"He had looked after me for 20 years, nursed me up and got me through," Fankhauser recalls the conversation with the doctor, "so I couldn't drop out a few weeks before this important procedure."
Philipp Fankhauser was reassured by his doctor's message. The musician found it particularly fascinating "that the cells find their own way to the place in the body where they are needed".
Philipp Fankhauser: "The result is fantastic"
"The transplant was still not a piece of cake, but the result is fantastic," said Fankhauser in "Südostschweiz".
He now does not have to worry that the leukemia will recur one day. In addition, the autoimmune disease ankylosing spondylitis has also disappeared.
Only the melancholy has not disappeared due to the new feeling of survival. "It would have been handy if I had become a little more cheerful," says the musician, adding: "Although I'm not just a child of sadness either."