By Bethany Miller
b-miller.11@onu.edu
Two hundred eighty-seven new donors were entered into the National Bone Marrow Registry on March 15 during the bone marrow registration drive organized by Newman Club.
The drive was the first of three to be held at ONU with the purpose of finding a potential donor for Robert Purgert, the 15-year-old brother of Jaclyn Purgert, P1.
Robert, who was diagnosed in October with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is currently in remission, but doctors have said that should he come out of remission, a bone marrow transplant would be the only treatment option.
Jaclyn Purgert, along with her two other siblings were tested after Robert’s diagnosis to see if they were a match for their brother, but none were.
Doctors then turned to the National Bone Marrow Registry to find a match, but were unable to locate anyone compatible with Robert.
Since then, Jaclyn Purgert said her family has continued to search for a match by holding registration drives. A total of about 1,500 new people have been entered into the Bone Marrow Registry as a result of the drives.
Senior molecular biology major Kristen Craig, president of Newman Club, said she was ecstatic about the large turnout for the first registration drive. She said she hopes the two other drives, which will be held on March 28 from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the health fair and at the Relay for Life in April, are just as successful.
“Every person added is another chance to save someone’s life,” Craig said.
She said the process of registration consists of filling out a medical history form and having four cheek swabs done. It usually takes ten minutes to complete the process.
Purgert explained that if someone in the registry is found to be a match for any patient in need of a bone marrow transplant, the marrow can be extracted in one of two ways.
The traditional method of bone marrow extraction is for donors to be put under anesthesia and then for doctors to extract the marrow from the pelvic bone.
Recently, a new, less painful method has become popular. In the newer method, which Craig said is used about 99 percent of the time, a donor is injected with filgrastim for five days before the donation.
Purgert explained that Filgrastim causes a person’s body to overproduce immature bone marrow cells. The immature cells then enter the bloodstream, making the bone marrow easier to extract.
On the day of donation, Purgert said an I.V. put into each of the donor’s arms. Blood is drawn from one arm, the bone marrow cells are filtered through a machine, and the rest of the blood is put back into the donor’s other arm.
Craig said the process is very similar to donating plasma, and that since the blood is being put back in the donor’s arm, they are unlikely to feel dizzy or weak.
Craig encourages students to register as a bone marrow donor because “you’re the chance someone has at that second shot at life when every other treatment option is gone. Personally, I know I wouldn’t be able to take that chance away from somebody,” she said.
Although a donor has still not been found for Robert Purgert, his family remains hopeful that they will be able find a match for Robert and other cancer patients.
“We always say that even if we don’t find a match for Robert – hopefully he’ll never need it – but at least hopefully we are helping some other people through it. That’s our main goal,” Jaclyn Purgert said.
Anyone ages 18-60 is eligible to become a bone marrow donor and there is no cost for registration when people are registered on campus.
More information about bone marrow donation can be found at www.marrow.org or by contacting Kristen Craig at k-craig@onu.edu.