Western alumnus Jenn and Erik Gelhar have raised $40,000 in over a month's span out of their $100,000 goal to send him to Germany for stem cell therapy. Photo by Talithia Taitano
One country rock band and three heavy metal bands will be rockin’ at 8 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 23 at the Nightlight Lounge to raise money for Bellingham resident Erik Gelhar to undergo stem cell therapy. Erik Gelhar will go to Germany for his failing heart, in hopes of holding back the necessity of a heart transplant.
Within the last few months, Erik Gelhar’s condition has been getting worse. Even though he takes about 16 pills a day, his heart has swollen another two centimeters. People with healthy hearts have a resting heart rate of 65-70 percent, his wife Western alumnus Jenn Gelhar said. Erik has a resting heart rate of 20 percent.
Neil McAdams, childhood friend of Eric Gelhar and member of heavy metal band playing Black Breath, is playing at the benefit. He set up this benefit to help Gelhar raise money. Neil said at least one person from each of the bands playing on Friday know Gelhar.
McAdams said he grew up with Erik Gelhar and was a groomsmen at his wedding, three months ago. He said Erik Gelhar went from having a good amount of money to almost nothing.
Jenn Gelhar and her aunt put together a committee that meets every week to find various ways of fundraising. So far they have done garage sales, benefits in Seattle and donations from the community. So far they have raised $40,000 in just over a month.
“If it works for me I’m going to shout off from the roof tops,” Erik Gelhar said.
The Gelhars plan on raising $100,000, suggested by his cardiologist Dr. Rajesh Bhola, in order to make it to XCELL-Center in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The center uses adult stem cells from the bone marrow in the patient, processes the stem cell and then prepares the cell to develop into what they are trying to heal. From there they re-inject the cell back into the body using a catheter to grow into the tissue the doctors trying to heal. A catheter is a small plastic tube that can be inserted into the body.
“It’s a little bit of hope,” Jenn Gelhar said.
The treatment alone costs $17,000 to $18,000. This does not include airfare, tests, follow-ups, etc. Erik Gelhar said he wants to raise enough in case he would need a second injection.
“It’s worth a shot, [but] it might not work,” Gelhar said. “It beats sitting around getting even more sick.”
Erik Gelhar is unable to get treatment in the United States because they are not as advanced as Germany in stem cell research. Germany has cutting edge technology and the people’s view about stem cell therapy is different, Jenn Gelhar said.
Dr. Charles Murry, co-director at the University of Washington’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, said the U.S. is still in the early stages of stem cell research. He said the ban that the Bush administration put on federal funding for the research slowed down the progression since it was a controversial and political issue.
“We need to be careful on how we approach it,” Dr. Murry said.
Now since the Obama administration has changed the policy, they are back to square one, he said. The progression got worse since they have to sort everything out to make sure the proper rules have been followed.
“The Americans are starting to get into the act too,” Murry said. “This is not going to be a spread, it’s going to be a marathon.”
He said he expects the progression of stem cell research to get better 18 months from now and work with adult cells and skin cells instead of human embryos. He said it would probably take the Obama administration about 18 months to go through all the procedures and develop revised guidelines on federal funding for stem cell research.
“We’re trying to figure out stem cells and how to harvest them,” Murry said.
The research institute has been able to make major improvements regardless of the setbacks. The institute has already been able to make a 3-D patch of heart muscles using skin tissue, he said.
“This stuff at the very best is highly experimental,” Murry said. “We really don’t know what we’re doing with this stuff.”
Before his heart started failing, Gelhar said he had his life together. He had a good paying job employed as a merchant mariner, just bought a house, owned a car and motorcycle. His body was in perfect health.
“The timing could not have been worse for me to buy a house because I had to stop working and I had a mortgage to pay,” Gelhar said.
Erik and his wife Jenn Gelhar are now both Whatcom Community College students. Erik Gelhar hopes to transfer to Huxley College of Environment to work in environmental planning and policy. His wife recently started the nursing program at the college.
“A lot of it had to do with Erik’s condition,” Jenn Gelhar said.
In July 2007, he began to have high anxiety and started to lose sleep. He thought it was a really bad cold and that it would pass, he said. After a month, his symptoms escalated and he felt a crackling sensation in his lungs. Finally, he went to the doctor thinking it was just pneumonia or bronchitis.
“It’s almost like you’re super nervous,” Erik Gelhar said. “The last thing on my mind was I had anything wrong with my heart.”
The next month almost immediately the doctors knew something was wrong with his heart. The results were so bad that they called in a cardiologist. Instead of introducing himself to the Gelhars when he arrived, he got straight to the point.
“Instead of shaking my hand he held my hand for a while,” Erik Gelhar said. “Immediately I knew something was wrong. For someone to hold your hand like that, it was kind of strange.”
Gelhar got a second opinion at one of the top five hospitals in the world called Mayo Clinic in Minn. The doctors there suggested he get a defibrillator inserted into his chest. This means he can no longer go under a metal detector, he cannot lean against a working engine, he cannot be next to any electromagnetic waves for long, if at all
It was a tough decision to make before he decided to have the procedure done, Erik Gelhar said. His job required him to be near high voltage equipment at all times. He worked on oil tankers and ships in the engine department. This meant he had to give up the job he loved, a marine engineer.
“Essentially I knew that I had to change careers, which sucked,” Erik Gelhar said.
It was a life or death decision. He had a vey weak heart at that time and would die if anything went wrong, unless his heart received a sudden shock the defibrillator provides. He was at risk for anything that would cause an abnormal heartbeat.
“I feel like I am busy all the time,” Erik Gelhar said. “Some of it’s great, some of it sucks. I need to try everything that I can before a heart transplant, which is pretty soon.”
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