New chemotherapy helps man survive rare heart disease

APOLLO, Pa. — The saying goes that a rainbow is a sign of hope and beauty after the storm.

“We had a giant rainbow over the house,” said Mike Eckman.

That’s when Eckman got the call of a lifetime.

“What a day, what a day that changed my life,” Eckman said.

In October 2021, he started retaining water in his legs while hospitalized for COVID. He knew something wasn’t right.

“Having COVID was a blessing because they were able to run all the tests while I was in the hospital. They say on a healthy human being it takes, I think, 3 to 5 years to diagnose,” Eckman said.

He had Stage Four Cardiac Amyloidosis, a disease so rare that only one person is diagnosed with it for every 500 cancer patients in the U.S. The average survival rate is typically six months.

“I watched him dwindle, you could see him get sicker and sicker every day and I just never knew what day was going to be my nightmare,” said Deanna, who’s Mike’s wife.

Eckman’s amyloidosis comes from his bone marrow which targets and weakens his heart. The typical treatment is a stem cell transplant, but like most patients, his heart was too damaged to get to that point.

That’s where new chemotherapy came into play.

“We had a new drug that was just approved in the market for frontline treatment of amyloidosis this drug improved the treatment even more by increasing the response rates and causing the response to be deeper with just chemotherapy without the need for a stem cell treatment,” said Dr. Prerna Mewawalla with Allegheny Health Network.

One year after his diagnosis, he got the call that chemo had knocked down the disease and AHN had a new heart for him from a donor.

“We prayed so hard bedside waiting for his surgery for that family, we don’t know who they are but because of them and such a gift they gave we have every day,” Eckman said.

Eckman still receives chemo once a month to keep the disease down. He’ll be back in October one year after the transplant to see if he will still need that stem cell transplant.

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