CUMBERLAND — Maryland State Police Senior Trooper Bobby Harsh took part in a medevac mission to Hardy County late Wednesday morning followed by a mission to eastern Allegany County where serious injuries were reported in a vehicle rollover on Interstate 68.
Not unlike his fellow troopers and civilian employees who work in the MSP Aviation Division in statewide missions day after day, Harsh answers the call without a hitch — and without giving a thought to his own medical condition that he has grappled with for the past several years.
The Williamsport native has been involved in emergency medical responses all his life — initially as the son of the founder of the County Medical Transport in Williamsport, one of the first private ambulance companies in the state. Robert E. Harsh was a volunteer with the Williamsport Ambulance Service where son Bobby became an emergency medical technician at age 16, a cardiac rescue technician two years later, and a paramedic by age 20.
After working for two years with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, Bobby be-came a state trooper and was assigned to the Aviation Division at Frederick upon graduation from the state police academy.
He has spent 22 years in the Aviation Division at Frederick and is currently assigned to the Cumberland Trooper 5 section where his older brother, Senior Trooper James Harsh, is also assigned as a paramedic.
In the fall of 2007, Harsh noticed a spot on his face that would not heal.
A visit to the family doctor led to the eventual diagnosis of melanoma. A 10-hour surgery followed for removal of the tumor and facial reconstruction, and a sentinel lymph node biopsy and removal of the parotid gland. The surgery involved 90 stitches from the top of his forehead to his neck.
The surgery was apparently successful and the biopsy came back negative in the pathologist’s report.
Following the surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Harsh qualified for a clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health and injections of a melanoma vaccine through the leg every three weeks.
In January 2009, medical examinations revealed that the melanoma had metastasized. Six diffused tumors found in his lungs were inoperable.
Without a thought of giving up and while keeping a positive attitude, Harsh and his loving family’s medical journey took the senior trooper back to Johns Hopkins for infusions of Interleukin-2. The drug was infused every eight hours with optimal treatment being 14 doses if a patient’s body can accept it. Bobby was able to receive nine doses in his first round of treatment and eight in the second one.
A CT scan subsequently determined the IL-2 treatments were not successful.
Harsh headed back to NIH where he was told his body needed to “wash out” of the IL-2 medications before he could be eligible for another clinical trial.
Taking advantage of the medical time off, Harsh and his family embarked on a sightseeing tour across the U.S., covering 7,500 miles in 30 days in their 32-foot fifth-wheel recreational vehicle.
Upon his return home in late summer 2009, Harsh revisited to the NIH. His timing was perfect and he qualified for the Yervoy (ipilimumab) experimental clinical trial. Only 50 people nationwide were allowed in the program.
Harsh received his treatments at the Carolinas Medical Center and the first subsequent CT scan showed all the tumors had shrunk. Yervoy was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2011 and is among the first of several long-awaited drug treatments for advanced melanoma.
“I am still in a clinical trial and I go back to North Carolina every 12 weeks. I’ve responded so well to the medication. I have stage-four melanoma in remission and that is extremely rare.
“I have benefitted from lifetimes of work by researchers. This drug has been in the pipeline for 19 years.
“I am very grateful to Bristol-Myers and NIH. It’s just amazing how many people are involved in this process,” said Harsh, who was on medical leave for 18 months.
Harsh believes his experience with cancer has made him a more compassionate person. He has shared his experience at Bristol-Myers Squibb events and “to let Bristol-Myers know the progress and outcome of their work.” He has been interviewed publicly several times and his experience has been published in the Melanoma Research Foundation newsletter.
Ever grateful for the untiring support of his family and friends, Harsh said he takes nothing for granted.
“Just to get back to doing what I do is very gratifying,” said Harsh. “It opens your eyes to a lot of things.
“The biggest thing I learned is that I was not in control of my life and that you have to relinquish that control,” said Harsh.
Harsh and his wife, Donna, who is a nurse at Chambersburg (Pa.) Hospital, are the parents of Lindsay, 21; Julie, 17, and Dan, 16. The family resides in Williamsport.
Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com.
