(upbeat music)
- [Nidhi Voiceover] This is Michael Garcia.
He sells his stool to a gastroenterologist.
Who uses it for fecal transplants.
- So we're in Tampa, Florida.
And we're driving to the clinic of Dr. David Shepard.
One of the few doctors in the area
who does fecal transplants.
This is when a small sample of a healthy person's poop
is mixed and deposited in the colon of a sick person.
I was able to meet one of the donors
who regularly stops by the clinic with samples.
So where are we headed to?
- Alright we're headed to the garage.
Where I have a big, tall freezer
where I store all the stool samples.
- [Nidhi] Mmhm.
You have a thing on that shelf?
- Yeah I have one in here a day.
You know, I have it in the tupperware container.
- [Nidhi] What's in the bottom?
- Just like some food.
But I make sure I keep a nice gap
between the food and (laughs).
(upbeat jazzy music)
- Okay so all I did was, this was a frozen sample.
Got my little whisk right here.
And then just a regular filter.
Literally just kind of mix it all up.
- [Nidhi] What's the consistency of it all?
- Um, basically like a milkshake?
The consistency of his bowel movements.
Are, they're really good.
They're just like really thick, really healthy.
And you can tell they are.
So that's why I normally like to use Michael's
for our colonoscopies through our C. Diff patients
because I'm able to get a really good amount.
Alright so I'm gonna take this.
And put this in my cooler over here, I'll show you.
- So Michael Garcia I guess is one of your donors
who has talked to us.
How would you describe him?
- About as healthy of an individual as you could hope for.
And that's what we look for.
All our donors are physically, mentally
at the top of their game.
- We're prepping lunch today.
Got some salmon, brown rice.
Some vegetables.
- Carrots.
- Yep carrots are good.
- Kale.
- Kale, oh super healthy (chuckles).
- So how long have you been doing the donor thing for?
- So yeah I've been doing it now for right around two years.
Little over two years.
It's a lot to keep up with.
The food and everything, you have to be on top of it.
- Do you have a sense of how much you made,
from being a donor?
- Yeah I drop off between four to six samples a week.
Of the stool samples.
And I get paid $40 per sample, so.
You know you could do the math at 12 months a year.
(both laugh)
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
How has that helped you out?
- Well you know, like I have grad school coming up.
So it's gonna be a big expense.
So you know, I try to,
I'm trying to save as much money as possible for that.
- The thing that got me interested in this was
it was this interesting mix of characters.
That was getting into the poop space.
Patients and consumers are kind of trying it
for everything from like dandruff to bad breath.
To you know, acid reflux.
There's one condition for which
people kind of across the board agreed that this,
poop transplants are the thing that work the best.
And that's this bacterium called Clostridium difficile.
(pensive music)
Why have fecal transplants
become so much more common these days?
- There are about 30,000 people die a year of
C. Diff Colitis.
The resistance of C. Diff to the antibiotics
that we normally use has increased.
25 to 30% of people with C. Diff
will ultimately fail antibiotic therapy.
And this is a great way to address that, those failures.
- What makes this place neat is that
you also see patients who are interested in the procedure
for things other than C. Diff.
- A lot of autistic kids have had a tremendous amount
of antibiotics over the years.
It's very helpful in getting rid of the
C. Diff for those patients.
But interestingly, it's had an unusual benefit
to these autistic kids.
Because a lot of their behaviors have improved.
- Yeah so I was just curious.
How did you hear about, you know the FMT procedure, like.
- So it's been in the news a while.
It was this whole community of patients
who had really serious and really kind of,
sort of uncurable conditions.
Who were kind of at their wits end
and looking at this as a very serious last resort.
But yet the FDA was very clear about what they wanted.
What they thought was supposed to be
and what they thought was not supposed to be, so.
- I'm not really sure on the FDA part of it.
- [Nidhi] Were you aware of that at all?
- I kind of yeah, they kinda explained that to me.
I'm sure that you know they would bring
something to my attention if something wasn't working.
Especially with my own stuff.
I trust that he wouldn't do anything,
you know a doctor's job is to first do no harm.
I know his heart's in a good, the right place, you know?
(upbeat music)
What else.
Alright, finished product, there it is.
- This looks so nice, thank you!
- [Michael] You're welcome.
- So hospitable.
Do you think you will keep doing it, through grad school?
- Yeah I hope so (laughs).
- What about the after grad school?
- After grad school?
Hopefully I would get a good job.
Working as a therapist (laughs).
And yeah I'll still do it.
As long as they want me to do it, honestly why not.
- Oh great.
- Oh yeah.
(graphic screeches)