Featured Image: Hendrik Gericks and Sherry Hanley (Provided by St. Luke’s University Health Network)

Sherry Hanley of Slatington just met for the first time the young man from Germany who saved her life eight years ago.

Hendrik Gericks had never met Sherry, either. He donated stem cells through Be The Match back in 2016 when she was battling leukemia. Sherry found out about Be the Match through her St. Luke’s oncologist, Yacoub Faroun, MD, who treated her up until – and after – her stem cell transplant.

Sherry was a deputy sheriff for Lehigh County in 2015 when she discovered a pinkish blotch on her skin. She thought it may have been related to a MRSA outbreak at Lehigh County Prison, where she often was responsible for transporting prisoners to the county courthouse.

After passing out at work, Sherry was rushed to St. Luke’s Allentown Campus, and after an initial round of bloodwork, was transferred to the Cancer Unit at St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus, where oncologist Dr, Faroun delivered the news that she had leukemia.

“Dr. Faroun was so personal and compassionate,” Sherry recalled of being hospitalized for 40 days while undergoing chemotherapy. “Dr. Faroun and his staff were wonderful. They did whatever was necessary. They gave me six months to live if I didn’t have a donor.”

After the donation, Be The Match only allows anonymous contact through their organization for a period of time. For Sherry and Hendrick, it was two years before they were allowed to know each other’s identity and were free to contact each other.

Hendrick had originally planned to come to the U.S. to meet Sherry in 2020, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He recently finished his master’s degree and will be in Bethlehem on Aug. 29, with his new wife, to meet Sherry.

“I was given six months to live and now I’m approaching nine years since my diagnosis,” Sherry said. “If it wasn’t for St Luke’s Cancer Unit and Dr. Faroun helping me get to the level of transplant, I wouldn’t have known about the change of stem cells and Be The Match. My donor is coming from Germany to meet me. This is a selfless young man who saved my life, and he’s my hero.”

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest-cost providers.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy