{"id":134677,"date":"2024-09-04T21:57:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T01:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=134677"},"modified":"2024-09-04T21:58:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T01:58:03","slug":"deputy-sherriff-saved-by-trans-atlantic-stem-cell-donation-meets-her-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=134677","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Sherriff Saved by Trans-Atlantic Stem Cell Donation Meets Her Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Hendrik Gericks and Sherry Hanley (Provided by St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Sherry Hanley of Slatington just met for the first time the young man from Germany who saved her life eight years ago.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s oncologist, Yacoub Faroun, MD, who treated her up until \u2013 and after \u2013 her stem cell transplant.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After passing out at work, Sherry was rushed to St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus, and after an initial round of bloodwork, was transferred to the Cancer Unit at St. Luke\u2019s Bethlehem Campus, where oncologist Dr, Faroun delivered the news that she had leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Faroun was so personal and compassionate,\u201d Sherry recalled of being hospitalized for 40 days while undergoing chemotherapy. \u201cDr. Faroun and his staff were wonderful. They did whatever was necessary. They gave me six months to live if I didn\u2019t have a donor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hendrik Gericks, Sherry Hanley and St. Luke\u2019s Oncologist Yacoub Faroun, MD.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u2019s identity and were free to contact each other.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s degree and will be in Bethlehem on Aug. 29, with his new wife, to meet Sherry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was given six months to live and now I\u2019m approaching nine years since my diagnosis,\u201d Sherry said. \u201cIf it wasn’t for St Luke\u2019s Cancer Unit and Dr. Faroun helping me get to the level of transplant, I wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019s my hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s 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\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s 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\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Hendrik Gericks and Sherry Hanley (Provided by St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network) Sherry Hanley of Slatington just met for the first time the young man from Germany who … Continue reading Deputy Sherriff Saved by Trans-Atlantic Stem Cell Donation Meets Her Hero<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sherry-Hanley.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/134679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}