A one-in-5 million bone marrow match saved her life. What were the odds they'd fall in love?

Newark Star Ledger ^ | 12.23.04

[Coleus]

On the day a priest came to her hospital bed and prayed over her withered body, Diana Abad would not have believed good fortune awaited.

Or seemed to be, until one day her back started to ache and another day her legs swelled. She had her blood tested and learned her white-cell count was absurdly high. Leukemia, her doctor said. Without a bone-marrow transplant, she would be dead in nine months.

David Mason would not have believed in 1990 that by checking a box on a Navy form he would set in motion the chain of events that led him to the love of his life.

He didn't give the bone marrow registry another thought.

The marrow registry had been created by Congress in 1987 to pair up donors with people in need of transplants. The registry stores information about the tissue type of 5.5 million people.

Ten years after Mason checked that box, he received a phone call telling him his tissue might be a match for someone who needed a transplant. He agreed to go to Massachusetts General Hospital for further testing. When those tests confirmed the preliminary match, he was asked if he would be willing to donate.

One day, after the last rites had been administered and after all of Abad's sick marrow had been killed by radiation and chemotherapy, a doctor appeared at her bedside at Sloan-Kettering with a clear bag of the thick, red marrow harvested from Mason's bones.

The procedure was all-or-nothing. If the transplant grafted -- if her body accepted Mason's marrow and used it to begin producing healthy blood -- she stood a good chance of survival.

Her marrow transplant had gone extraordinarily well. Her body began making healthy blood.

[Coleus]

Nice love story, I wish them well and continued good health.

This biased, liberal rag NEVER mentioned the words: stem cells, ADULT STEM CELLS or Ethical and Effective stem cell use. Bone Marrow adult stem cells have been used for almost 30 years to produce healthy leukocytes. Multipotent peripheral blood stem cells and umbilical cord blood stem cells can also be used.

Star Ledger articles are on line for 14 days, if you want the article copy and save it now.

[secretagent]

Thanks for the post and the info that blood marrow transplant involves adult stem cells.

I didn't see "Newark Star Ledger" on the "excerpt only" list. You could post the entire article.

[Welsh Rabbit]

Nice story, and it's the first I've heard of the bone marrow registry. I think I'll look into signing up. It's a very small sacrifice that can save someone's life.

[Coleus]

I didn't see "Newark Star Ledger" on the "excerpt only" list. You could post the entire article. >>

Yea, it's in there somewhere, the Star Ledger is excerpted automatically when the web link is put in the "thread" section of the post.

[srm913]

Mysterious ways...

[Coleus]

Bone Marrow Registry

National Marrow Donor Program:
A Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Banks:

A most precious gift--Donated Umbilical cord blood saves lives. Just ask these grateful parents

Cord Blood Stem-Cell Research Working

[secretagent]

Thanks.

[Petronski]

I encourage everyone to click through and read the whole beautiful story. I'm a little verklempt.


Time is precious.

[arasina]

Time is precious.

It IS a beautiful story. Lump in throat comparable to your verklemptness.

Reminds me of the chick flick "Return to Me" with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, which, I confess, I have among my small, personal DVD collection.

[Petronski]

verklemptness

I was never sure if it would be verklemptness or verklempticity or verklempthood or verklemptitude.

[arasina]

I was never sure if it would be verklemptness or verklempticity or verklempthood or verklemptitude.

Let's think this through, Petronski. Verklemptness was the appropriate use in my reply to you. Verklempticity is too 'happy' -- like serendipity; verklempticity resembles the word velocity, thereby essentially removing the 'gulp!' factor; verklempthood reminds me too much of the name of a Brooklyn neighborhood; verklemptitude is a good one and could probably be used interchangeably with verklemptness.

On that note, I think it's time for me to go to sleep. :-)

[Petronski]

Sleep well. ;O)

[goldstategop]

An unlikely way to the meet the love of your life. I see the Hand Of God behind it. Baruch Dayan Ha Emet. Blessed Be The True Judge. He is sovereign in matters of life and death and in the affairs of the human heart as well.

[ikka]

I think that "verklemptheit" would be fitting.

[Petronski]

verklemptheit

Did I sneeze? ;O)

[martin_fierro]

Compared to what these people have been through, eHarmony is for wimps.

< |:)~

[Petronski]

Merry Christmas to you, funnyman.



;O)

[martin_fierro]

And a Christmas Kishka for yunz.

Just don't hide it.

[Petronski]

Now I have THIS stuck in my head:


Someone stole the kishka
Someone stole the kishka
Who stole the kishka,
from the butcher's shop?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Someone call the cops!

Fat and round and firmly packed
It was hanging on the rack
Someone stole the kishka
When I turned my back
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Someone bring it back!

Someone stole the kishka
Someone stole the kishka
Who stole the kishka,
from the butcher shop?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Someone call the cops!

Yusef found the kishka
Yusef found the kishka
Yusef found the kishka
And he hung it on the rack.
He found the kishka
He found the kishka
He found the kishka
Yusef brought it back


Hey!

[onyx]

I love a love stroy.
Thanks for the ping,
and................
a Holy Happy Christmas to you.