Billy Klein, Jr

Billy Klein, Jr. is a survivor.

First, Billy survived being shot in 2010. The bullet went through his arm, hitting him in the ribs, a lung, an artery and his spine before it exited underneath his right shoulder blade. Billy died for five and a half minutes, three separate times. He was left paralyzed due to the damage to his spine. Nonetheless, he survived.

Ten years later, in August of 2020, Billy went to the doctor thinking he had a severe urinary tract infection. It turned out that Billy had chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).

“When I first found out that I had leukemia, all I could think about was how I was going to tell my mom. I didn’t really know much about leukemia. I knew it was bad. I knew it was cancer. But the hardest thing for me was telling my mom.”

Billy started off taking a chemotherapy pill that was intended to keep the cancer at bay. When his cancer got worse and the chemo pill was no longer enough, Billy’s cancer developed into acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).

 It was at this point that Billy was referred to the UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center for treatment. Ju-Hsien Chao, D.O. started Billy on a more intense chemotherapy. Billy received the treatment constantly for seven days, 24 hours a day. After that, he was in the hospital for a month until he was in remission.

From there, it was necessary for Billy to do a bone marrow transplant while he was in remission. Typically, without a bone marrow transplant, remission doesn’t happen twice.

This had its own set of obstacles. Billy does not have any brothers or sisters, so his parents were both tested to see if they were a match. Both parents were a 50% match, which wasn’t quite what they were looking for. Plus, once you’re over 40 years of age, your bone marrow starts to break down, so using his parents’ bone marrow was not ideal.  

For weeks, they checked the registry, hoping a match would pop up for Billy. But, something had to be done, so his care team decided to give his dad’s bone marrow a shot. While a 50% match wasn’t great, it was better than nothing.

In October of 2022, Billy finally got his bone marrow transplant: “Out of millions of people, it was my dad. Without it, I would have died.”

At first, the bone marrow was not working. He received four “boosts” from his dad to try to get the bone marrow to work. On the third, Billy found out that there was a match out there for him, but unfortunately, the donor backed out on him.

Billy was seeing Dr. Chao three times a week as he fought to make this bone marrow donation successful. Overtime, they became quite close.

“Dr. Chao is amazing. He is more than a doctor to me. He is a friend,” Billy shared.

Billy also highly respects the nurses, who he says are all amazing. The entire Brown Cancer Center, he says, was fabulous throughout the whole process: “They literally saved my life.”

Then, in July 2023, Billy found out that he had CML of the brain and spinal canal. Billy was thankful, though, as this type of CML could be cured. The other types bring along a six-month life expectancy.

After fighting off the cancer in his brain, his dad’s bone marrow started working. Now, the bone marrow is at 100%, and Billy is fully in remission from CML, with only two doses of chemotherapy left.

Billy survived cancer.

Now, Billy advocates for people to sign up to be bone marrow donors. In fact, while he was searching for a donor, he had many of the Brown Cancer Center nurses sign up to see if they may be a match.

“I always wondered what my purpose is. I have died three times. I didn’t know why I was here. I feel like it’s to help people try to find donors and try to bring awareness to it.”

As for the process of donating bone marrow, Billy says it’s nothing like it used to be. In fact, it doesn’t even require surgery. Instead, it is similar to giving blood.

Looking ahead, Billy can’t wait to ring the bell. He plans to celebrate the end of chemo with a trip to Miami or Las Vegas, and could not be more excited.

“I would tell anybody with cancer, look at me. I’ve been there. I’ve done it. I’m still breathing. And it’s because of the Brown Cancer Center. That’s why I’m still alive.”

How can we help you?

Connecting with our team of specialists at UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center is the first step in getting treatment.