Research Patient Stories

Dawn Botsford was sitting in a chair at the hair salon in 2011 when her hairdresser commented on a spot on the top of her ...

The Reibels have relied on Mayo Clinic for their care for 25 years. That experience has inspired them to donate to Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Medicine.

Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in her 40s, Tanis Milicevic tried a number of treatments to keep the disease in check. But the cancer came back. Then her Mayo Clinic care team offered Tanis a new option, and it made a world of difference.

Mayo Clinic's 14-year partnership with Diné College has opened up opportunities for students like Corinna Sabaque to gain experience in fields where Native communities are often underrepresented and underserved. In Sabaque's case, those opportunities launched a career in cancer research.

When Stephanie Van Doren came to Mayo Clinic, she never expected to learn she had a genetic defect that raised her risk for a potentially fatal heart condition. But thanks to her physician's all-inclusive approach, Stephanie and her family now have information they need to live life to the fullest.

Just as things were settling down in the aftermath of a polar vortex in the Midwest, a new issue presented itself at Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus. And staff stepped up to meet the challenge.

Mayo Clinic researcher John Fryer, Ph.D., is hopeful the work in his laboratory will yield insights into Alzheimer's disease, as well as sepsis — an often-deadly condition which claimed his father's life in 2016.

Jennifer Gutman calls the day doctors diagnosed her youngest son, Lucas, with hypoplastic left heart syndrome the worst day of her life. The severe heart defect, sometimes referred to as HLHS, was uncovered during what Jennifer and her husband, Brian, thought would be a routine ultrasound. The startling news brought immediate fears for Lucas’ future. Determined to help Lucas, Jennifer’s sister-in-law, a physician, reached out to medical colleagues for advice. One of the phone calls she made led her to Timothy Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Connecting with Dr. Nelson and his team has made the long-term outlook for Lucas and his family considerably brighter. 

On May 14, 2011, Nancy Capelle, a wife and mother of two young daughters, clinically died at the age of 40. She suffered spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), a condition that blocks blood flow to the heart causing a heart attack, abnormalities in heart rhythm and sudden death. But thanks to the quick actions of a paramedic, she is alive today to tell her harrowing story of life and death. What was so hard for Nancy to comprehend following her medical emergency, she says, was that in a blink of an eye and without warning, healthy young women can be stricken by SCAD and die. Yet it didn’t appear from her research into the condition that the medical community was actively researching the tragic phenomenon. Perhaps it was because it was considered so rare that support for such a study would be difficult to find, she thought, or that finding enough SCAD survivors would be even more problematic. Then Nancy came across an article in the Aug. 30, 2011, edition of The Wall Street Journal titled, “When Patients Band Together -- Using Social Networks To Spur Research for Rare Diseases; Mayo Clinic Signs On.” For Nancy, this article changed the dark face of SCAD dramatically, and she would find herself and many other young women just like her able to see daylight again.

For the past eight years, Nicole Dehn, 30, has had pangs of sadness whenever she passes a small grove of trees on the road near her Jacksonville, Fla., home. The trees are a constant reminder of the day epilepsy took her freedom. http://youtu.be/FN7WbRTdD5Q Nov. 14 2005. It’s the day Dehn had a seizure while driving. Her car came to rest in the median atop the shrubbery. “The trees are slanted and one is totally flat. Riding by it… it’s like a slap in the face every time,” says Dehn, who, though unharmed, lost her driving privileges. The seizures began when she was 6 months old. They got progressively worse.  Typically, medication can control seizures in most people with epilepsy. But for about 30 percent of patients, they aren't effective or are intolerable. Over the years Dehn tried various drugs and treatments, even having a device implanted in her brain in an attempt to control the seizures. Nothing seemed to work.

It’s tough for anyone to deal with a cancer diagnosis, especially someone at the age of 18. Todd Blake, a Jacksonville, Fla., native, was just beginning life as a freshman at the University of Florida when he was diagnosed with late-stage Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a serious form of blood cancer. Fast-forward through countless treatments and multiple relapses, Todd decided to make the most of his situation by starting a nonprofit organization to help other young adults deal with their cancer diagnosis. Now, his wife, Maja, has  joined the battle against cancer — recently joining Mayo Clinic’s Cancer Center research team and pursuing future cures for several types of blood cancer.

Phil Fischer, M.D. is one of the Mayo Clinic physicians who recently went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the video interview below, ...