3. David Fajgenbaum
Once nicknamed “the beast,” Dr. David Fajgenbaum was considered to be the fittest of his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school. However, in July 2010 his life would change forever when he woke up one night with swollen lymph nodes and sores all over his body. This would be the beginning of his own personal nightmare. For no apparent reason, his body weakened and he suffered from hair loss and muscular atrophy. After several failed treatments, and his immune system on the brink of collapse, David knew his time was running out. Finally, after testing a lymph node sample he was diagnosed with Castleman disease, a condition so rare there was barely any research on it since discovered in the 1950’s.
After years of research, and earning his medical degree in 2013, David began to believe that the reason there wasn’t a successful cure was due to his body not communicating with his T-cells and a protein known as VEGF. He realized he needed to suppress certain triggers from activating and began to take a drug known as sirolimus, essentially becoming his own test subject. After six months, his immune system began to return to normal. Now, David continues to study the disease, his body returning to the physically fit man he once was. He’s optimistic that a treatment for the disease will be approved in the future.