A Marine's hard fight: leukemia and a smallpox vaccine infection

Belken felt encouraged. "All right then," he said.

Lederman secured special approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Belken got very protective of his arm and didn't want family members to hug too tightly.

"Stay away," he told them. "That stuff's no joke."

Minutes to live

With so many things haywire in Belken's system, doctors hustled to figure out what was causing his crash. The main problem turned out to be a multiple-drug-resistant bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It had invaded Belken's bloodstream while his immune system was low.

Tests for vaccinia did not show any in the blood or bone marrow, but Lederman acknowledged that the infection may have had some effect.

"Any time you have an infection or multiple infections going on at the same time, you distract the immune system somewhat," she said.

Doctors gave him minutes to live, his mother recalled.

"And then after those minutes went by, it was hours," she said. "It turned to days, and then it was all right."

One doctor called Belken "Lazarus." Danchenko has never seen such a turnaround.

"He had one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel," he said. "If you have anybody who's an atheist, they should go meet Cory."

The near-death experience left its mark, shriveling some of Belken's toes. Surgeons had to amputate both legs below the knees.

The vaccinia also spawned satellite lesions. Lederman had to add another experimental drug known as CMX-001, which had never been tested on vaccinia patients. About a month later, she had to kill another drug-resistant bacterium that started to grow on Belken's lesion.

The young man required so many doses of vaccinia immune globulin that the CDC has suggested re-evaluating how much we keep in the Strategic National Stockpile. Belken's infection required an amount originally estimated to be enough for 30 people.

In his fifth-floor hospital room one recent morning, Belken patiently crossed his arms and waited for Lederman to apply medicine to his lesion.

His face was gaunt and serious, a contrast with the rosy-cheeked former self smiling back in pictures tacked to the wall.

Lederman was pleased with the scabbing and new purplish-pink skin.

"We haven't got any live virus in over a week," she said with a smile.

Belken still can't believe all of these problems attacked him at once.