| Anthony's mother
writes:
Our son Anthony had a cord blood transplant
at five months old. It saved his life. Anthony was diagnosed at
four months of age with a rare genetic bone disorder called Osteopetrosis.
The only cure for this life threatening illness is a bone marrow
transplant. His doctors immediately discussed using cord blood instead
of bone marrow from an actual donor. The cord blood, (the blood
taken from the umbilical cord) rich in stem cells, is usually discarded
after birth. What a waste of valuable life-saving material. Knowing
that Anthony would need to be transplanted as soon as possible,
they started the search for a cord blood match. One of the reasons
for using cord blood is that it's readily available. There is no
waiting to locate the donor and find out if they are still willing
to donate. That wait can be a very lengthy period of time.
I can not even begin to tell you what it
felt like not knowing if our baby was going to survive, to have
this little tiny being that you helped create and grow inside you
be taken away from you within the first few months of his life.
It's devastating.
Within a week, a match was found! After
all the pre- transplant testing, Anthony was admitted on December 3, 2002, and did eight days of chemotherapy to bring all of his
counts to zero in preparation for his transplant. Anthony was transplanted
on December 12, 2002, one month after his diagnosis. That was one
of the greatest days of our lives. Our son was getting a second
chance of life. There were some rocky moments during his two-month
stay in the hospital, such as ending up in ICU, but he had a will
to survive and on January 31st, his blood counts were at an ideal
level for him to come home. Anthony is now four years old
and continues to recover very well. He is learning to play the piano and is taking horseback riding lessons.
The ironic thing is, during my pregnancy
I read up on storing your baby's cord blood. We decided to save
it with a private company. We didn't have any genetic diseases in
our families, or so we thought. We kept it as a security blanket.
Since we couldn't use Anthony's own cord blood for his transplant
because his own stem cells contained the cells that didn't function
properly, we have donated it to the medical team that does the research
for Osteopetrosis. The team has never had the opportunity to do
research on the cord blood of a baby with the disorder. We are hoping
that they will be able to discover some new information that they
have never before been able to do.
What happened to us can happen to anyone.
Vic and I are from very different backgrounds and somehow we carry
this same rare recessive gene. Our little boy--now an active pre-schooler--is alive and smiling
today because of his transplant.
It costs you nothing to donate, and think
of how many lives you can help save. We are so thankful for the
family that donated their baby's cord blood that Anthony received.
We hope to meet with them one day and let them know how truly grateful
we are.
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