Spice of Life: A Chef’s Recovery

Marvin Darnell oozes charisma. Meet him once, and it’s easy to imagine the former chef charming customers late into the night at a fine dining steakhouse in Denver. He is happy to recall stories from his professional days in the ‘90s, when he rented a nine-room mansion for less than $400 a month, throwing parties for family and friends, with rib eyes and crab legs bought wholesale.

“Those were great times,” Darnell remembered, smiling.

Even though his parties these days are a little milder than those of yesteryear, Darnell is far from inactive. He exercises regularly and has been completing a variety of home renovation projects. He even started his own barbecue sauce business with his son, called 19, after the number of spices required for his special recipe.

However, when he turned 52, Darnell began experiencing severe health problems that threatened to take the fun out of life, or worse if he didn’t get help. He started feeling short of breath. His legs began to swell. Soon, even walking up a small flight of stairs became a difficult task. He spent 17 days at a local hospital, only to be told that the doctors didn’t know the cause of his illness. Fortunately, he knew exactly where to go for answers.

“When I was a kid living in Bryan, Texas, I developed asthma,” he said. “And they told my dad, ‘You need to take your kid to this place called National Jewish Health in Denver. It’s the best hospital for asthma there is.’”

This time, Darnell’s condition was more severe and involved other diagnoses. “His sarcoidosis was pretty advanced,” recalled pulmonologist Clara Restrepo, MD, who began working with Darnell in 2014. The disease had caused small lumps called granulomas to form in Darnell’s lungs, and it was just the beginning. As he was being treated for his sarcoidosis, doctors discovered that Darnell also had pulmonary hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The combination of these illnesses might leave most people feeling hopeless, but Darnell was confident in the care he’d first experienced as a child. Soon, the team rallied around him, with pulmonologists Laurie Manka, MD, and M. Patricia George, MD, joining Dr. Restrepo to provide a care regimen informed by their unique specialties in airway diseases and pulmonary hypertension.

Despite the severe nature of Darnell’s lung diseases, the treatment he received soon helped him stabilize and begin to improve. “They put me on a trial for this new medication,” said Darnell.

“They also taught me techniques for how to breathe. I started to get a lot better.”

It was a long road to recovery, but Darnell’s indomitable character remained a constant. "He’s a really remarkable individual,” said Dr. Manka. “He’s also what you hope for in a patient. He really took the therapies to heart. It made a huge difference.”

“Dr. Manka would give me advice about what to take, and how to do things, and I listened,” Darnell said. “I’m still here, and I’m still strong. I’m grateful to the staff at National Jewish Health, and I want to thank God for my recovery.”