In light of today's bone marrow drive dedicated to an Ohio University professor, one recent donor match encourages people to get swabbed.
The Appalachian Community Visiting Nurse Association, 30 Herrold Ave., will host a bone marrow registration drive from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. The drive will honor Patty Weitsman, an OU professor of political science, who has been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and is in need of a bone marrow transplant.
Myelodysplastic syndrome is a disease that affects bone marrow and blood.
"(The drive is) in honor of Patty," said Christie Truly, a volunteer coordinator for the association. "But even if we aren't able to find a match for Patty, if we can get hundreds of new DNA registrants onto the blood marrow drive donor list then anybody that's already waiting for a transplant can be matched with somebody."
Those who go to get "swabbed" must be 18 to 60 years of age, according to a press release. Registration, which takes about 8 to 10 minutes, involves brushing a cotton swab on the inside of your cheek.
"Getting on the registry at any time could give somebody a chance - especially somebody in the OU student population even 20 or 30 years down the road. They would be able to be a donor for a person," Truly said. "That's the great thing."
In any given year, 6,000 to 8,000 people are waiting for a bone marrow transplant, according to the press release.
After registering with her husband in 1997, Janet Gustafson of The Plains was contacted by the National Marrow Donor Program. Gustafson said she learned she was a one in 13 million perfect genetic match with a 29-year-old patient diagnosed with aplastic anemia.
The donation process took about an hour and a half, Gustafson said, adding that the experience was worthwhile.
"Absolutely go for it. Absolutely go for it," Gustafson said. "You may save someone's life. The amount of pain I had was so minimal compared to the pain and suffering someone might be going through."
Despite the two to three days of pain while recovering, Gustafson said the worst part is waiting to hear whether the recipient is recuperating.
"They tell me that no news is good news, but I can't even really communicate with him until a year has passed," Gustafson said. "It's really kind of nervewracking because you want to know that he's okay, and that hasn't happened yet."
The fact that perfect genetic matches are so rare made the opportunity hard to pass up.
"Who wouldn't do this? Who could say no if they were a perfect genetic match to someone in this world," she said. "It just totally blew me away that I was able to do this."
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