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.

[buffyt]

I read the whole long article and it is so good. I forwarded it to friends and family. What a wonderful touching story and a great HAPPY ending!

[hershey]

A friend of mine (Eileen), had breast cancer, was operated on, seemed fine, but it came back. She ended up having her own bone marrow replanted in herself...long experimental procedure she learned she was eligible for on the internet! This was after her own doctor had said there was nothing they could do until the cancer turned up in her lymph system...by then she'd be 'terminal'. She used the internet, found out about this procedure, and it saved her life. Another friend came down with lung cancer and I passed on the story about Eileen, so this second friend got a computer and went online and did her own research. There are resources out here now that we could only dream of a short time ago. This second friend beat her lung cancer, too. Merry Christmas, all!!

[ken5050]

Bumping along.

BTW..whenthey make the movie..which they will..who will play the two?

[End Times Sentinel]

What a great story!  Merry Christmas and thank you for posting this!

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[cyborg]

I'm in the registry. I had no choice as the man literally pleaded with me to donate for the amount of hispanic and mixed race people they need. I do recall checking off everything because even I'm confused :-) Now I'll bet they never imagined these two matching but I LOVE God's imagination. Merry Christmas everyone.

[cyborg]

Rosario Dawson and Ethan Hawke.

[RaceBannon]

Fall in love??

You mean like these two??

Click here for hilarious E-Harmony ad while it lasts!

[Slyfox]

What were the odds they'd fall in love?

About one in 5 million.

[SuziQ]

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.

I love that movie! One of my favorite parts is when Minnie Driver is set up with another 'transplant recipient' and it turns out to be a guy who had had a HAIR transplant! That guy was one of the writers of the film! His reaction to her pulling his hair was not rehearsed, and Minnie Driver's response was completely spontaneous and hilarious!

[SuziQ]

I always thought it was spelled fahklempt

[arasina]

I love that movie!

I love that sappy flick for more than just the main "heartwrenching" premise and watching David Duchovny.

The cozy Irish-Italian bar, the "Spring Water" chick, the cardplaying gang, his best friend, that wonderful dog...I could go on. Carroll O'Connor, Bonnie Hunt, Jim Belushi, Minnie, et al. Great casting. And I didn't know that about the hair transplant guy. Funny scene!

I don't buy a lot of movies, but I did do so with this one because it's fun to share.

[staytrue]

The other side is a white male professor needed a kidney transplant. He searched for a match, wooed her, married her, got his transplant, then divorced her. And no, the divorce court did not order him to give back the kidney.

[SuziQ]

The guys in the bar are just a hoot! I love the scene where they're all dancing with each other, and the waitress is dancing with each of them. It is just a sweet movie. I love the scene when David Duchovny comes back to the bar to get his phone, and Robert Loggia brings him back to meet the other guys. They seem wary of him at first, but when he mentions that he's a widower, they bring him into the fold immediately because they realize that he's a likely suitor for Minnie Driver. The spring water lady is hilarious too; annoying, but hilarious. I love David D.'s reaction to catching Minnie D. putting regular water in the spring water bottle.

OK that does it, I gotta buy that DVD!

[the invisib1e hand]

gives new meaning to the terms, "match," and "bone of my bone," eh?

It's a freaking love story. How on earth do you find a stem cell soapbox here?

[Coleus]

It's a freaking love story. How on earth do you find a stem cell soapbox here? >>

you will have to read the entire article and know well the bias in the media out there.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Question: if the lady has had all of her own bone marrow destroyed by chemo and has new bone marrow transplanted, what is the effect on her DNA? Does this change her DNA? Forever? Does her blood type now match other sources for her DNA, such as the cells in her cheek?

This is a great human interest story, but my daughter and I were discussing the possibilities for a mystery story...

[LadyDoc]

When you plant bone marrow, you keep the red and white cells matching the bone marrow that was planted.

So her DNA of the blood would be that of the marrow donor, not hers...

Here is a discussion of DNA evidence in crime:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mblood.html

Here is a discussion of bone marrow (i.e. stem cells in bone marrow)
http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/Treatments/Stemcellbonemarrowtransplants/Generalinformation/Bonemarrowandstemcells

In the past, when matching bone marrows weren't as exact, people would develop a "graft versus host" reaction, that could be fatal.

Now the matches are better, and the anti rejection drugs are better.
http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/Treatments/Stemcellbonemarrowtransplants/Generalinformation/Graftversushostdisease

many parents are storing their children's "cord blood" at birth just in case the child needs such a tranplant...

http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1160.asp

And I work with many native Americans...and many tribes have active programs to recruit bone marrow donors, since the DNA would be closer in the same racial/genetic background... for example, many local pow wows have booths set up to recruit donors...

[AKA Elena]

The fact as I understand it (my grandaughter's life was saved through an unrelated donor's stem cells) is that, her DNA is changed from what it was.

This was one of my questions after all was said and done and my son told me that it was changed (he is not often off on fact or trivia, which this fact had certainly become (trivia) in relation to the entire ordeal.)

[the invisib1e hand]

It's Christmas, love is in the air, and my personal bias is against any debate for a few days. The issues will be there when I return.