http://www.fremontneb.com/articles/2003/03/10/news/news1.txtBy Beverly J. Lydick/Tribune Staff
They met in the late '60s. He was a sophomore at Fremont High School and she was a freshman at Archbishop Bergan.
Introduced by a mutual friend after a high school basketball game, they soon began dating. They often went to King's Food Host, a popular restaurant among Fremont teens at the time. He graduated in 1970, and she in 1971, but they continued to date, even when she went off to Wayne State College.
On June 1, 1973, they married.
Nine years later, their first and only child was born.
For 20 years, they were a family of three, living in Fremont. But now there are only two in the house on Austin Lane.
Cheryl Gentry, 49, died Friday at University Hospital in Omaha, waiting for a liver transplant that never came. Her husband, Terry, and daughter, Tina, 20, were at her bedside.
"She was the best friend I ever had," Terry Gentry said one day after his wife's death. "She was the only girl I ever dated."
Taking their marriage vows seriously, Terry stood by Cheryl in both good times and bad, including her bout with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2001.
He was with her when she began chemotherapy treatments that same year at the clinic of Fremont oncologist Dr. Tahir Javed. He was with her when she was declared cancer-free early in the summer of 2002.
And he was with her when she received a letter in October from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, advising her to be tested for a strain of Hepatitis C.
Terry said his wife knew something was wrong long before the letter came.
Plagued by fatigue to the point she was taking lengthy naps during the day, Cheryl was afraid her cancer had returned.
"Dr. (Thomas) McKnight did all the tests for cancer," Terry said, "and nothing showed up. They started checking into other things and found an enzyme in her liver that wasn't normally there."
McKnight referred Cheryl to Dr. Mark Malliard, a University Hospital liver specialist who confirmed, through blood samples drawn at Fremont Area Medical Center, Cheryl was infected with Hepatitis C.
"We had no idea how serious it was," Terry said. "We asked Dr. Malliard how she could have got this. The only blood transfusions Cheryl had were when our daughter was born, when (Cheryl) had a hysterectomy, and when she was admitted to Methodist Hospital for cancer.
"We had all the Methodist paperwork and we were in the process of getting papers from the Fremont hospital. Then we got the (Nebraska Health Department) press release."
The October letter, advising 612 people to undergo testing, came after state officials realized Cheryl and several others initially referred to Dr. Malliard had two things in common - the same strain of Hepatitis C and the same oncologist, Javed. Investigators have since linked the outbreak to poor medical practices at Javed's clinic.
State health officials repeatedly have said many people go forever or for many years without showing any effects of Hepatitis C.
Such was not the case for Cheryl.
"Her's was extremely fast," Terry said. Admitted to University Hospital Feb. 21, Cheryl developed symptoms of autoimmune hepatitis, a disease which causes the body's immune system to attack the liver. By March 4, she was moved to near the top of the list of nearly 40 patients in Nebraska awaiting a liver transplant. Daughter Tina arrived from Wayne State College to be near her mother.
Thinking back to when Cheryl was first diagnosed, Tina said she didn't really didn't think her mother would die.
"I figured it was something she could get medicine for," said Tina, "and that she'd be OK. They keep saying it could (appear) in 20 years. They never say it could be a year. I figured it wouldn't be this soon. But when she didn't go home from the hospital (the weekend of March 1-2), I knew something was wrong."
By March 5, Cheryl was extremely weak and couldn't hold a conversation for more than a few moments at a time, her daughter said. But she did ask the nurses to leave the room and for Tina to sit beside her on the hospital bed. A nearby chair was not close enough.
"I didn't know what to say," said Tina, "so I sat there and just read my book."
It was their last time alone together.
Tina said her mother was a wonderful person.
"We had our differences, we would fight," she said. "But she was always there. If anything came up at school, or if there were problems, she'd want to hear about it, even if I didn't want to talk. She was very stubborn. Eventually, she'd get it out of me."
Terry, too, said Cheryl was a fighter, first overcoming cancer and then struggling with Hepatitis C.
"All she wanted was for her life to get back to normal," he said, noting his wife especially enjoyed her job at Staples, an office supply store in Fremont, and the people she worked with there.
"She like to talk, she liked to shop, and she enjoyed the Internet," Terry said. During and after her chemotherapy treatment, Cheryl chatted on-line with other cancer survivors. After not hearing from her in the past few weeks, Cheryl's long-distance friends from as far away as Canada and New York called Terry to check on her condition.
Their concern, and that of the University medical staff, friends and family, has strengthened Terry and Tina to the point they hope to have found a way to produce something good from a very bad situation.
Terry has agreed to allow an autopsy to be performed, to give University physicians a better understanding of the disease which so quickly took Cheryl's life.
"They are excellent doctors," he said, "but they were baffled by this. (An autopsy) is the only place we're going to get any answers. That body is the only thing that knows. Hopefully, this will help someone else."
Terry Gentry is the first person directly involved with the Hepatitis C outbreak to speak openly with the Fremont Tribune of his family's experience.
"The main reason I'm doing this," he said, "is because of the rest of the people who have been diagnosed with Hepatitis C. It's a serious illness. It might not wait 20 years to happen. All of the publications I've seen so far say people may not even know they have it.
"But it's not something you can be quiet about. You have to let people know."
Services for Cheryl Gentry will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 3400 E. 16th St.
Information forum slated
Those interested in learning more about Hepatitis C may attend a forum Sunday at Fremont City Auditorium.
The session, which runs from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., is designed to inform the public about the disease, and to answer any questions those in attendance might pose.
Dr. Mark Malliard, associate professor of medicine and director of the Hepatitis C program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, will speak about Hepatitis C and how it is transmitted.
Dr. Alexandre Macedo De Oliveira, epidemic intelligence service officer for the Centers for Disease Control, will report on the outbreak in the Fremont community, and the investigative process currently under way.
Nebraska State epidemiologist Dr. Tom Safranek also is scheduled to speak.
The forum has been arranged by Lil Holland of Lincoln, who facilitates a support group for those afflicted with Hepatitis C. The group meets weekly in the Fireside Room of Fremont Area Medical Center.
Fremont resident Jill Watson also assisted in arranging Sunday's forum. Watson was diagnosed with the disease in January after having received negative test results in November.
For more information about the forum, call Holland at (402) 795-2254.
Copyright © 2003 Fremont Tribune
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