Bedridden and rocked with pain, Irwin Gordon wasn't sure if he would enjoy his lifelong passions of playing the piano or fly-fishing in Argentina or British Columbia again. A year after receiving a successful bone marrow transplant with cells donated from his daughter in 2021, Irwin's battle against acute myeloid leukemia (AML) seemed to be unraveling. His kidneys were failing, and his lungs were filled with pneumonia.

Irwin’s postoperative illness was attributed to GVHD, or graft-versus-host disease, a serious and well-known complication that can occur after cells transplanted from a donor start attacking the recipient’s own tissues. At first the transplant was successful, and despite being in remission for a year, “the pneumonia escalated quickly to sepsis and led to a 13-day medically induced coma, from which I was not expected to survive, let alone play the piano or fish again, as I’ve done since,” he said.

It took a lifesaving lung treatment at UT Southwestern for everything to return to normal at the Gordons’ home, which he and his wife, Pierrette, rearranged and outfitted with hospital supplies for his convalescence after two weeks in the ICU.

A devout Christian, Irwin said he also prayed and benefited from the intercessory prayers of his family, and from a priest he has since nominated for sainthood in the Catholic Church. Within weeks, Irwin started improving. He attributes a new zest for life to the care he received at UT Southwestern, and to a healthy dose of divine intervention.

“My coming back from the brink would not have been possible were it not for the outstanding expertise and superb care I received at UT Southwestern, which was also a gift from God,” Irwin said.

A cellular gift

As a global executive with a long career of board service in public companies, Irwin spent decades in leadership roles across various sectors of corporate America. While accustomed to winning battles in the C-suite, nothing prepared him for the quick decline and subsequent struggle following his cancer treatment. It was a humbling experience, Irwin said, but once he was in the clear, he reflected on ways to share his gratitude, literally deciding to give of himself.

In consultation with his UT Southwestern care team, Irwin donated his own tissue samples so that personalized treatments could be designed for others facing his relatively rare AML diagnosis.

“Irwin’s acute myeloid leukemia was driven by a molecular motor that was overactive and producing large numbers of abnormal blood cells – kind of like a car engine that is too revved up,” said Robert Collins, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of both the Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapy Program and the Combined Adult/Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program at UT Southwestern. “In treating Irwin, the Program obtained a number of bone marrow samples as part of his therapy, and because we have an excellent translational research effort in AML, we’ve been able to utilize his samples to learn some very important things about his leukemia that will help other patients with the disease.”

Preferring to have a “logarithmic” or exponential effect through his support, Irwin wanted to have an impact beyond patients currently fighting leukemia. He promised to support UT Southwestern’s cellular immunology and cell transplant programs in a way that would make a difference for future generations, starting with Yazan Madanat, M.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Hematology and Oncology Division and a member of the care team that performed Irwin’s bone marrow transplant.

“Through his expertise, I was given extra time to be the best version of myself that I can be, which motivated me to both donate my own tissue samples and share financial support directly to research that makes a difference,” Irwin said.

The clinical research of Dr. Madanat aims to incorporate novel therapies for patients by understanding the molecular and genomic drivers of disease. Research from the lab of Stephen Chung, M.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern, also played a pivotal role in informing Irwin’s care.

“Dr. Madanat is at the intersection of intellect and expertise in medicine,” Irwin said. “His experience represents not just a passion for medicine, but a passion to make medicine better. And that’s where UT Southwestern excels – by bringing together top medical minds in an environment that has the resources needed to innovate treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers.”

Robert Collins, M.D.

Yazan Madanat, M.D.

Stephen Chung, M.D.

Irwin’s support comes at a time when UT Southwestern is launching a specialized center to capitalize on significant breakthroughs in the field of cell therapy, where emerging treatments use re-engineered immune cells to target and annihilate cancer cells with unprecedented precision.

At 75 years old, and with cancer never far from his mind, Irwin surveys his life from the position of having been rescued from near-death by science and evidence-based care at UT Southwestern.

“When I was facing what could have been the end, I became even more consistent and intense in my prayer patterns,” he said. “I only prayed for three things: strength, because the Lord has given me this challenge, therefore strength is what I need to overcome it; guidance, because we all need guidance; and grace, which is difficult for most people to put into practice.”

Irwin said he found a way to put grace into action by supporting UT Southwestern.

“The best option while we’re alive is to donate to things that can make an outsized impact in the future,” he said. “Sharing my story with others is important, not just because of my financial support, but because I also contributed something much more personal, my own marrow samples. Thanks to this dual contribution, the UT Southwestern team’s research has uncovered a promising approach to the proactive treatment of blood cancer – one that is now gaining recognition and could change countless lives."

“Hopefully, this inspires others to join me in directly supporting research that saves lives. Together we can turn today’s small wins into tomorrow’s major victories.”

• Dr. Collins holds the Sydney and J.L. Huffines Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research in Honor of Eugene Frenkel, M.D., and the H. Lloyd and Willye V. Skaggs Professorship in Medical Research.