Asian Donor Match Profiles
Natalie Nakatani is 8 years old. She has a little brother, Sean, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. After
five difficult rounds of chemotherapy last year, Natalie’s leukemia was
in remission. Now it’s back and we have just weeks to find the bone
marrow donor match that Natalie needs to save her life.
Natalie's
greatest chance for a match is from those of ASIAN descent. Please help
us spread the word through the Asian community.
Before you sign up, please be willing to make this sacrifice. The worst thing to happen would be for you to be a match, then back out at the last minute.
1) The initial testing phase is painless.
You take a sterile cotton swab and wipe the inside of your cheek. Next, you put the swab inside the folder provided and send the self-addressed, stamped return envelope to the lab.
Where to get the kit?
Go to a donor drive or
register for a home kit on-line.
When you send the kit back, label it: URGENT: NATALIE NAKATANI
2) Donating - If you are lucky enough to be a match, there are 2 ways to donate. You have a choice. The doctors generally recommend one method, but ultimately you as the donor have a choice. You should NOT have to fly anywhere; most local hospitals will be able to perform either procedure.
a) Method 1: Marrow donation
You go to your local hospital and have a brief outpatient procedure. They will give you anaesthesia so you will not feel any pain during the marrow extraction. The doctor will poke a special needle into your hip and take some bone marrow.
You will be discharged from the hospital later that day. You will have some discomfort in your hip for a few days and your bone marrow will regrow completely within a few weeks.
b) Method 2: Blood cell collection - For 4 days before the collection, you will receive one injection per day of a synthetic protein called filgrastim. Filgrastim increases your cell count. On the day of collection, your blood is removed from one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the collection cells. The remaining blood is returned to you through the other arm. The cell collection is an outpatient procedure which takes about 6-8 hours and is done over a 1-2 day period. Most donors experience headaches, or bone or muscle aches several days before the collection. This is a side effect of the filgrastim injections. The aches subside shortly after the collection.
