David Fagenbaum

I was wishing and hoping that I would be able to find drugs in memory of my mom and treat patients in her memory.

That vision was so important for me as I was struggling to survive for those six months.

The second is that you have to have an amazing team of people by your side.

My sisters literally held both of my hands

eight hours a day for those six months, giving me the strength that I needed.

My dad sat with me.

My girlfriend was there with me as well.

They provided strength and support.

And of course, when you think about it from a professional perspective, the team that you have around you is everything, right?

It's so important.

It is truly everything.

And the third is that you have to take things one step at a time.

And so if someone had come to me at the beginning of that six-month period and said, David, you're going to suffer the most unbearable pain you've ever felt.

You're going to be on the brink of death.

for six months, you're going to say goodbye to your family, I would have said, there's no way I have the strength to make it for six months.

I would have said, you know, where's the white flag?

No way I can do that.

But taking the approach of one step and one breath at a time helped me so much.

I remember there was one point about 11 weeks into that illness where my doctors told me that we were out of options.

I started slowing my breathing.