This Thursday, Sarah is having surgery to donate bone marrow to an anonymous 18-year-old boy.
It's a relatively straightforward procedure - they extract it from your hip bone under local anasthesia - and she doesn't seem nervous. Nonetheless, I'm taking the day off, and we're shipping Asher to Grandma in Queens.
What struck me most about this was the risk involved for the recipient. Apparently, they have to eradicate his bone marrow shortly before he receives the transplant. If his body rejects Sarah's marrow, he has none of his own to go back to. It's a leap of faith, and they tell Sarah that the chances of success are 75-90%.
It's a relatively straightforward procedure - they extract it from your hip bone under local anasthesia - and she doesn't seem nervous. Nonetheless, I'm taking the day off, and we're shipping Asher to Grandma in Queens.
What struck me most about this was the risk involved for the recipient. Apparently, they have to eradicate his bone marrow shortly before he receives the transplant. If his body rejects Sarah's marrow, he has none of his own to go back to. It's a leap of faith, and they tell Sarah that the chances of success are 75-90%.
posted by isaacjosephson at 8:43 AM
2 Comments:
... plus I think it's really hard even be matched with someone to make that 75-90% chance. So, from the recipient's end, it's pretty miraculous that Sarah even exists, let alone their success rate.
Kol ha'kavod to everyone (is that the right phrase?).
-cp
What a great thing for her to do. God bless.
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