Last week, 68-year-old California resident Paul Edmund announced a major medical breakthrough: five years after completing a bone marrow transplant, he not only succeeded in curing acute myeloid leukemia, but also became the fifth patient in the world to be diagnosed with AIDS. Mr. Edmund is grateful to all the medical staff who supported and participated in his high-risk surgery. To commemorate this landmark medical miracle, the New England Journal of Medicine published his journey on Feb. 15.
Looking back, Mr. Edmund was first diagnosed with HIV in 1988, a time when the medical profession was helpless against AIDS and society was in a state of panic, and he himself felt as if he had been sentenced to death. However, in 2018, fate challenged him again, and he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, commonly known as blood cancer. Faced with such a serious condition, Edmund strengthened his will to survive: "I am not ready to leave this world. He then underwent chemotherapy and began preparing for a bone marrow transplant.
Bone marrow transplantation, which is essentially a means of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, is an effective solution for certain types of leukemia. By transplanting bone marrow from a matched donor, patients are able to re-establish normal hematopoietic function and immune systems, but may also face high-risk complications such as weakened immune systems. Eventually, Paul Edmund underwent a bone marrow transplant on February 6, 2019 at the prestigious City of Hope clinic in California, thus beginning a new chapter in his quest to overcome his dual illness.