Sobering Diagnosis Comes Crashing Ashore

For most people, a fractured neck would hardly qualify as a lucky break. For Michael Riotto, it may well have saved his life.

In the summer of 2011, Michael, then 51, was bodysurfing waves with his 13-year-old son on the Jersey Shore when one wave slammed him to the ground. Still sore the next day, he went to the local hospital where he learned he had fractured his neck. The CT scan also revealed something else — that his bones, in the words of the attending physician, were “moth-eaten.” The doctor sent him that same night to a larger hospital in Philadelphia where more tests, scans, and a bone marrow biopsy resulted in a sobering diagnosis: multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable blood cancer that develops in plasma cells in the bone marrow.

Specifically, he was in stage III of the disease, and pamphlets shared with him and his wife that night forecast a life expectancy of no more than five years. “Mind you, I had no symptoms leading up to that fracture on the beach,” Michael recalled, noting he had a demanding career as a manager of a large department store. “No fatigue, no bone pain, no aches in my back, no anemia, none of the typical symptoms.”

Were it not for his fractured neck, Michael’s MM might not have been detected until it advanced even further. With his diagnosis, Michael began chemotherapy. Within a few months, Michael’s hematologist recommended an autologous stem cell transplant, a procedure in which a patient’s healthy stems cells are collected, stored, and infused back into the patient after treatment to replace faulty bone marrow. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has long been a leader in funding research into stem cell transplantation, a key treatment in fighting blood cancers. MM is not (yet) curable and ongoing research includes looking at how to improve immunotherapies, such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, and drugs that modify the immune system.

Michael had the procedure a few days after Christmas. After about 24 days in the hospital (due largely to a serious infection), Michael returned home to recover and continue with maintenance treatment, specifically with lenalidomide, a drug that helps the immune system. He continued it until the end of 2019, when his doctor advised a break because Michael had contracted the flu. When tests showed that Michael’s MM remained at bay during his initial break from lenalidomide, his doctor extended the break several more times.

Michael has enjoyed a stretch of more than six years without being on any drug for MM, but he reported in early 2026 that he is in a precursor stage of a new variant of the disease, and he is consulting with his doctors on next steps. While Michael deals with pain and irreversible damage to his bones from the MM, he says he is in the best shape of his life. He is grateful this his stem cell transplant has given him more time with his son, daughter, other family members, and friends. His own experience has led him to become a patient advocate, and he is now a regular visitor to Capitol Hill where he speaks about the importance of federal investment in scientific research and support for health care programs.

Michael said he’s alarmed by the cuts at NIH: “The research that goes into all these different drugs is really, really critical to people’s survival.”

Michael said he believes it’s simply a matter of time before his remission ends, and he’s already discussed with his doctor what treatments might be appropriate when that happens. He thinks some form of CAR T-cell therapy would be likely, and he has followed with interest research developments on that front.

Michael said that one of his doctors told him that federal cuts to scientific research may discourage scientists from pursuing their studies.

“He said, ‘People dedicate years, or even their entire lives, to a certain project. The funding may be here now, but will it be here next year?’ As a patient, that’s really scary.”