Somehow he's still an optimist: Leukemia patient after medical errors

Before his first trip here, John Kunka was near death — a place he's been many times, before and since. But this morning, the 28-year-old Alberta, Canada, resident is nearly ready to get married here, at an annual event called the Plunge for Patients. These money-raising races, hosted every summer by Morey's Piers, are a big event in his life, which would explain his wedding here — two years after he got engaged at the races.

Here's how important: As Kunka sees it, he may well be alive today and able to marry the love of his fragile life because of the Plunge for Patients and the cause it benefits.

At 13, Kunka's world was built around soccer and school. Then leukemia came along and blew up his world, and his body.

But at first, he appeared to be lucky. The recommended treatment for his rare form of the blood cancer was a bone-marrow transplant, and Kunka's doctors found a good match without having to go far — his sister, Sabrina. Six months after he was diagnosed, he got the transplant and his cancer went into remission. But now he knows his health troubles — which would send him "through hell and back several times," in the words of a woman who knows his history — were just starting.

He developed graft-vs-host disease, or GVHD — his body was rejecting the new bone marrow and attacking his own organs. His skin, for example, grew so tight on his body that "it's like glass," he says.

Early in the fight, he got to go on a trip with a group that sends sick children on dream vacations. His trip was to Disneyland but his dream was interrupted with a rude dose of reality when he bumped into a table in a hotel room — and his crisp-textured skin burst like a glass shattering, sending him to the local emergency room. "That gave me an idea of what to expect for years to come," John says, showing off legs carrying the scars of many such war stories in his 15-year battle within his own body.

His treatments for the condition made his joints deteriorate. He has had three knee replacements and two hip replacements — again, at age 28 — and he expects to need more surgery to replace his shoulders and his ankles and even his knuckles, all because of complications from his disease.

He has shattered a hip and been plagued with blood clots in his lungs. He has had more than 40 operations, and will have even more.

“I've almost died after my last few surgeries,” he says, from overdoses of anesthesia and morphine.

Still, somehow after all that, John Kunka is an optimist.

He hasn't been able to play since he got sick, but he never lost his passion for soccer, and he coaches on crutches if he has to.

Advice to people with chronic illness: Optimism and love might be powerful forces for you.

Read another of our leukemia patient stories, or read Martin DeAngelis’ source story.