Strengthening Research to Combat Liver Diseases
Grateful patient Blacher establishes endowment to help others
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| Stephan and Gaetane Blacher fund liver disease research. |
Top racing drivers believe horrific accidents happen only to other racers, never to them. Palm Beach businessman Stephan Blacher, a first-rate professional driver in his day, was stunned to wind up in the other column during a road race at Sebring International Raceway in the late 1970s.
“I hit a retaining wall dead-on,” relates Blacher, who was driving a Formula Atlantic car, a fast, fragile vehicle that looks like a scaled-down Indy Car. The wall dominated that violent confrontation, smashing Blacher’s car, his left foot, shin, shoulder blades, and knees.
“I don’t remember a lot, but I knew I was in for major surgeries,” says Blacher, who continued racing for several years afterward. In some ways, the worst results of his crash didn’t turn up for a quarter-century. That’s how long it took for Blacher to learn that blood transfusions received during knee surgeries had infected him with hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver and can be contracted through exposure to contaminated blood. Over time, hepatitis C can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, or liver failure, and in some cases a transplant may be necessary.
“Around the time that I turned 49, I began to feel dizzy and a little bit off,” says Blacher, who turned 56 in April. “And I didn’t know why.” A blood test revealed elevated enzymes, a tip-off that Blacher’s liver wasn’t functioning properly.
“There was no way to check for the virus prior to 1993,” Blacher says. “And then it appears, 20, 25 years later. And you feel fine while it’s doing its uncanny work, like stealth bombers. I’ve even seen what one of these viruses look like, and they look cruel, like something out of Star Wars.”
An entrepreneur who created a Florida business treating patients with alcoholism, bipolar illness, and drug addiction, in 2003 Blacher got in touch with Lennox Jeffers, M.D., professor of medicine and associate chief of liver disease at the Miller School.
Jeffers prescribed a potent pharmaceutical cocktail that dramatically lowered Blacher’s viral count, but whose side effects included joint pain and low white blood cell counts. “My levels are beginning to become normal again,” Blacher notes of the hepatitis C virus in his liver. “It’s taken months to get back to this place.”
Reminiscent of his training regimen when he raced cars, Blacher has been lifting weights, exercising, swimming, and watching his diet to aid his recovery. Grateful that his hepatitis C is under control, Blacher established an endowment last year that gives the Miller School $100,000 annually for five years to research liver disease.
When it comes to Jeffers and his medical team, Blacher says “they care. And they’re doing everything that they can. And they’re good at what they do,” adds Blacher, who says his wife, Gaetane Blacher, and his parents have played instrumental roles in his recovery.
“It is with pride and humility that Gaetane and I accept this opportunity to help Dr. Jeffers improve the quality of life for countless hepatitis patients,” Blacher says. “Hopefully what we do today will make a difference tomorrow.”
According to Jeffers, Blacher’s gift will be used to research patients with chronic hepatitis. “We’re doing clinical studies to look at diabetic patients, as well as patients with cirrhosis,” Jeffers says. “Mr. Blacher’s research endowment means a lot in this economic climate.” |
