(WHTM) — Any of us who have ever experienced acid reflux know how uncomfortable it can be, but did you know it can also be deadly? A central Pennsylvania man didn’t know, but found out in time.
David Kimmel found out just in time that he had stage three cancer. It is the worst stage at which doctors have a decent chance of curing.
“I’ve had heartburn for years that was treated with your basic maintenance drug, and then I started to have GERD attacks,” Kimmel said.
David’s youngest daughter, Laura, happens to be a nurse and remembers when she first realized something was wrong.
“It was at my birthday dinner,” Laura said. It was May 2024 at the Stoney Creek Inn in Dauphin Borough.
“So we were sitting outside and we were all getting burgers and you ordered soup,” Laura said. “And I thought that was very strange for you. Because you couldn’t swallow any, like any of the solids. And I thought, ‘Well that’s just really weird. Why would you order like a hot soup outside at the end of May when it’s really hot out?’”
David also had a cough.
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“But it kind of persisted and actually, I think it was our son Seth who said, ‘You need to get that checked out,’” David said.
Well, his family was right.
“Talked to my primary care physician and she said about an endoscopy,” David said.
The diagnosis was “inflammation at the base of my esophagus and it turned out to be cancer,” David said, adding that he was in shock when he heard that.
“David had esophageal carcinoma,” UPMC Oncologist Dr. Sri Lakshmi Yeruva said. “We caught it at a curable stage.”
David explained that treatment “started with the chemo and radiation. Followed up by the surgery and then a regimen of immunotherapy, which I just finished, I guess two months ago,” he said.
And for next month?
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“I am getting married this summer, in May,” Laura said, with David adding that it is on the 16th. So, he will be there, which wasn’t always a given.
“So it’s very important to know this and also have endoscopies done sooner,” Yeruva said.
David said that his mother is 98 years old and that his grandmother lived to be 103.
Now, as a 71-year-old, David has a chance to match that. The things he was experiencing can be symptoms of cancer, or long-term reflux can cause cancer. So listen to your body and to your family if they’re as smart as David’s kids.
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