When I was pregnant with Lexi and learning about having a baby, there was a lot of information about cord blood storage. Stem cells from the cord blood is used to treat Leukemia, Lymphoma and other life threatening illnesses. Either you could pay thousands of dollars to have your cord blood stored in case later in life you or your child come down with a life threatening illness or you can donate at no cost your cord blood so that others can benefit from the stem cells in the blood. Derek and I chose to donate the cord blood. When I gave birth, there were probably 10 ish (I really don't remember...mom or derek?) people in the room, one of those people (probably as I was wolfing down my subway sandwich) whisked away the cord blood and it went to the Puget Sound Cord Blood Bank. The following day two people came and took several (again, it's blurry) tubes of blood for testing. Well, a few days after I got home from the hospital I got a call from PSBB and they were missing a couple of the questionairre forms that I was supposed to fill out in the hospital....had I not been a registered Blood Donor, the cord blood would have been thrown away. I answered their questions and the blood was then "eligible" for donation.
Where am I going with this? I got a call today from the Blood Center, they called to let me know that mine and Lexi's blood was matched with a 62 year old man who is suffering from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He told me that there was a high amount of stem cells in it, enough for him to have the treatment. He said that they are not sure the patient is going to have the treatment, but our blood is on hold in case he does. If he doesn't it will go back into inventory for the next patient.
I was very touched by the phone call, my Auntie Celaine has been battling this disease for quite some time now, so it is nice to be able to help someone that is going through what she was/is going through. I always wondered where the blood you donate goes, I know they don't call everyone that donates, but I thought it was a great call to get. Any pregnant ladies out there...donate that cord blood!!
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4 comments:
what a great story emily! we had both of our kids cord blood stored through CBR, but i didn't know you could donate if you chose not to store. what a wonderful thing to be able to do for someone else. good work mom and dad (and lexi, too)!
Where is my "thumbs up" button when I need it? Great story Em!!
nice work on the donation! We did that too! Personal choice what you do with it, but awesome that it is able to help someone out!
Emily! I love this story! I am so happy that you made the decision to be a donor. So proud of you! Jessica
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