'I'm glad I stayed alive.' Dad to donate stem cells to son after surviving suicide attempt

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This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the suicide prevention hotline at 800-273-8255 or seek out area resources.

INDIANAPOLIS – That morning last July when Geovani Galvez got off work, he was not thinking about what the future might hold for Levi, his 6-year-old son who had been battling cancer for the past four years.

Galvez wasn’t thinking of the many reasons he had to live. He wasn’t thinking that one day he might be Levi’s best hope for survival.

Alone with dark, dark thoughts, Galvez took his brother’s gun and shot himself, hoping in that moment to end his life. But circumstances conspired against that plan and Galvez survived.

And, now, because of that, his son may survive as well.

Seven months after the failed suicide attempt, Levi’s cancer returned. And doctors have told Galvez that a stem cell transplant from him could be the key to saving his son's life.

“I need to be here,” Galvez said a few weeks ago to IndyStar, a part of the Paste BN Network, as he and Levi went through a series of procedures, preparing for the stem cell transplant performed on March 1. “I think I was kept here so I can help him through his hardest time in his life. I’m glad I stayed alive…. It's amazing because you know, it's just like I'm giving him life.”

As Galvez spoke, sitting in the lobby of the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, where he and Levi had just come from one of Levi’s many medical appointments, the boy played quietly on an iPad next to him. Levi surfed for pictures of food, finding one of his favorites, the honey walnut shrimp at Panda Express.

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For Levi, who is autistic, hospital lobbies are a regular part of life. Except one trip to Disney World a few years ago, any time Levi has packed a bag, it’s to go to the hospital.

Hospitals are also a familiar place for Galvez, even when Levi is feeling well. For the past six years, he has worked for Indiana University Health in various capacities. He currently does financial counseling in the emergency department.

All the unknowns                

When Galvez first started working for IU Health, he never imagined that his son would also spend so much time in hospitals.

One day in March 2018 when Levi was about 2 years old, he suddenly stopped walking. His parents thought he might have injured his leg and brought him to the emergency room, where hospital staff noticed he also had some rashes. Fearing the worst, they did some blood work that confirmed their suspicions: Levi had cancer, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Galvez and his wife were shocked and devastated. Just hours earlier they had thought their son was perfectly healthy.

“One of the hardest things is not knowing all the unknowns,” Galvez said.  “Like, we just didn't know anything… It was definitely overwhelming.”

Levi’s sister Violet was still an infant, only 7 months old at the time of his diagnosis. For the next two years, Levi was in and out of the hospital. Each chemotherapy treatment, it seemed, came with complications. First, there were bacterial infections then seizures and along the way, as Galvez terms it, “some scary episodes.” Levi persevered and in August 2020, the months of treatment came to a close.

While the chemotherapy regimen results in a cure for the majority of children diagnosed with B-cell leukemia, between 10% to 20% experience a relapse, said Dr. Sandeep Batra, medical director of the leukemia program at Riley Hospital for Children located in Indianapolis.

Levi fell into that unfortunate minority. In March 2021, he relapsed. The doctors decided to try a stronger therapy and that sent him back into remission.

Personal stress in Galvez's life also began to take a toll. He was working long hours in IU Health Methodist’s emergency room. Life seemed too rough to bear. He felt like the world just did not seem to hold a place for him anymore, he said.

“I just felt like things weren't going the way they should because I felt like I was losing control over a lot of things,” he said. “I don't know; I was just really tired of everything that was going on in life and I felt that was the way out.”

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On Monday, July 19, Galvez hit his lowest point. He took his brother’s gun, got in his car, and started driving. As he drove, he shot himself in the heart.

The searing physical pain that ensued pushed the psychological pain that had brought him to this point out of his head. I must get help, he thought. I can’t do this.

“The pain was so horrendous,” he said. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever felt ever in my life.”

Somehow he managed to drive himself to IU Health Saxony Hospital in Fishers, Indiana, about 10 minutes away. He knew the hospital well having worked there in the past.

In the parking lot, he recalled, he stumbled out of his truck, fell to the ground, got back up again and fell once more. A police officer saw him struggling to make his way to the emergency room doors and ran over with a wheelchair. When the officer reached his side, he realized not only that Galvez was bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound but that he knew him as a former hospital employee.

Galvez’s former co-workers rushed out to try to save him. A crew from the Fishers Fire Department station just steps away ran over to help. They cut off Galvez’s shirt, X-rayed him quickly and determined he would need more advanced care. Within minutes, Galvez was in an ambulance flying down the road to IU Health Methodist.

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Because his blood pressure had dipped dangerously low, Galvez did not receive any medicine to dull the pain. Once he reached Methodist, trauma surgeons spent about five hours addressing his injuries. The bullet had fractured three ribs and the surgeons had to remove his spleen. The day after the surgery, he was up on his feet walking but the surgery could not repair the emotional trauma that had brought him there.

Seeking therapy before had just not occurred to Galvez, although he felt lower than he had felt at any other point in his life.

“I was so used to being the one that helps everybody else,” he said. “It's always kind of felt like it's hard to ask for help when you're the one who always helps.”

As his physical injuries healed, Galvez also received mental health treatment in the hospital. He and his wife decided it would be best for the kids for him to live at home, where he remains in a situation he describes as “stable.”

In an optimistic move, Galvez started training to become a paramedic. Levi entered kindergarten.

Then came what was meant to be a routine spinal tap for Levi in December. The cancer had returned. His options were narrowing.

Levi's best shot at survival

 About 60% to 70% of patients like Levi whose first relapse comes late in the first treatment stay in remission, Batra said.

Once again, Levi proved unlucky.

“There is a percent of leukemias which are resistant and you can’t really know that unless you go through treatment and they relapse often times,” Batra said. “You can predict that based on some genetic markers, but with him — we were hoping that he would do great and for the most part, he went into remission for some time.”

When Levi relapsed once more, doctors could try two other therapies: a relatively new form of treatment that tries to train the patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer. The other hope: a stem cell transplant.

But first, there had to be a match for Levi. In some cases, a sibling proves the ideal donor with a 10 out of 10 match, said Dr. April Rahrig, a stem cell transplant and cellular therapy physician at Riley Hospital for Children.

Levi has a sister, but once more he was unlucky.

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Next doctors looked to his parents, knowing that more than 99% of parents are half matches for their children. That turned out to be the case for Levi.

Females are at a higher risk of auto-immune disease, which can increase the chance of graft vs host disease, a condition where the donated cells attack the host’s body, Rahrig said. For that reason, doctors prefer when possible to use a male donor over a female one, particularly a woman who has given birth, which can raise the risk further.

When Galvez heard that he was his son’s best match, he was delighted.

“When you look at us, we look like twins. He looks exactly like me,” he said, moving his face closer to his son’s. “I was happy because we really thought his sister was going to be his match, and to know that I was, it was it was pretty amazing.”

Levi’s doctors had also checked the National Marrow Donor Program but did not find a match for him. In general, matches for patients of color and certain ethnic backgrounds are more difficult to find than those for white patients, Batra said.

Levi, though, did not need to wait long. He had a willing donor right in front of him.

“There still is a possibility that it might not work, but at this point, it's the last option we have,” said Galvez, a few weeks before the procedure. “You know, it's just one of those things that he has to get done.”

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The stem cell transplant

On the morning of March 1, doctors removed about 1,700 milliliters of fluid from the bone marrow in Galvez’s hip bones and back, enough to fill about a Pepsi bottle and a half. The fluid, which resembles thick blood, is bone marrow, which contains those healthy stem cells destined for Levi.

Meanwhile, Levi had been receiving intensive doses of chemotherapy and radiation, enough to wipe out his entire bone marrow and immune system, Rahrig said. The idea is Galvez’s healthy bone marrow will provide the building blocks for a new, cancer-free immune system.

Once the three-hour procedure on Galvez had ended, the bone marrow headed to another part of the hospital, where Levi awaited. Shortly after 3:30 in the afternoon, Galvez said, Levi’s infusion began.

Initially, Galvez had hoped to be there at that moment. But as he recovered from his procedure downstairs in the hospital, he got up to go the bathroom and fainted.

By the time he made it to Levi’s room, it was about three hours into the nearly 10-hour procedure. Levi napped, played with his toys, and then watched one of his favorite movies, Home Alone 3, with his dad.

Now comes the waiting.

For the next six to eight weeks, Galvez will stay in the hospital with Levi as his body hopefully accepts the new stem cells and reboots its immune system. Galvez’s recovery should take three to five days and within a month his bone marrow will regenerate fully, Rahrig said.

During the coming weeks, doctors will watch Levi closely to make sure he does not develop any infections, that the chemotherapy and radiation have not caused any organ toxicity and that he heals as expected, Rahrig said.

Levi will likely spend the time attending virtual kindergarten, playing on his tablet and playing with his beloved Legos, Galvez said.

While a chance remains Levi’s leukemia will return, his doctor said that’s not likely.

“This is a cure for Levi,” Rahrig said.

And it may turn out that this whole journey helps others as well.

Not only does Galvez plan to one day return to his paramedic training, but he also plans to volunteer with IU Health’s Trauma Survivor Network. He’ll tell others no matter how dark things may look in the moment, that does not mean they should give up.

The time may come when they, too, can save another’s life.         

Follow Shari Rudavsky on Twitter: @srudavsky.