Life-saving gift

May 13, 2008 05:52 am

— LEWISBURG -- On any day of the week, more than 6,000 people search the national registry for bone marrow donors to find one who can possibly save their lives.
Derrick Dull, 22, is one of those people searching for a bone marrow transplant.
The Lewisburg resident was diagnosed with acute leukemia in January -- and the transplant is expected to wipe away almost any chance of the cancer reoccurring in his body, said his fiancé Mindy Culp, also of Lewisburg.
"This is his only chance for survival," said Culp.
To increase Dull's odds of finding a donor match, Culp, 25, will be holding a bone marrow drive Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church on Market Street in Lewisburg from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Test kits were donated and will be free for those attending.
Match search
Bone marrow tests to be conducted at the drive are much simpler than they might seem, Culp said.
"How it works is people will use Q-tips to swab the inside of their cheeks for a few seconds and fill out some forms with health and contact information. Then their kits will be sent for testing before they actually ever make a donation to anyone," she explained.
"It only takes a few seconds to do the test and potentially save someone's life."
Though there are about 7 million prospective donors on the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry, according to the NMDP's Web site, Culp says it's difficult to find a perfect match. Such a compatibility decreases chances of complications after the procedure when a patient's body could accept or reject the new bone marrow.
"Derrick found one perfect match, but then the person was unavailable," Culp said. "So people should take signing up for the national registry seriously because families can get their hopes up, thinking they found a match, and then the person might change their mind."
The odds
Donors and patients are matched based on comparisons of certain parts of chromosomes, not their entire DNA, said Dr. Edward Gorak, co-director of the bone marrow transplant program at Geisinger Medical Center.
Siblings have a 25 percent chance of being compatible, while with unrelated donors, it depends on race and ethnicity, Gorak said. Once a match is secured, the donor then goes to a transplant center that works with the NMDP if they are donating to a person on the NMDP's registry.
While donating bone marrow used to require an operating room and general anesthesia, most transplant centers have discontinued using that procedure. Transplant centers now only need a blood sample from donors to collect bone marrow stem cells.
"Donors are hooked up to a machine and blood comes out, stem cells are filtered into a bag, and the blood goes back in the body," Gorak said. "You're filtering about 20 liters of blood in a five-hour period, but no one gets anemic or loses blood because it goes back in."
A wide search
Those who participate in the Lewisburg bone marrow drive can sign up to be put on the national registry of possible donors.
"Whenever anyone holds a drive, they don't just hold it for one person, but for the registry," Culp said. "So hopefully we can find Derrick's match and help a lot of other families too."
Bone marrow donors must be between 18 and 60 years old and in general good health. For more information on the bone marrow drive and donating, email Culp at mculp10@yahoo.com or go to www.marrow.org.

Photos

Marriage plans for Mindy Culp and Derrick Dull are on hold while a search is made for a bone marrow donor. Dull has been diagnosed with acute leukemia.