"bone marrow donation"
i got matched as a bone marrow donor. given how familiar i am with leukemia, and how horrible those diseases are, i'm gong to do it. it's for someone in boston. miss monica says that it's not too hard for caucasian people to find donors, but it is a lot more difficult for minorities to find matches in the us. so here i go. i don't have anything else terribly pressing to do nowadays, so maybe saving a life is next up on the agenda. i was registered senior year at mit, during a bone marrow campaign for a student with an extremely rare blood and antigen type. who knew it would come in handy later on?
off of the national bone marrow donation website, i found this description of the process. doesn't sound too bad. maybe i can even ask them to let me watch it:
After receiving anesthesia, the donor is placed on his/her stomach. The doctor makes an incision through the skin on the lower back and hollow needles are inserted through the incision into the pelvic bones (right and left iliac crests). The doctor then attaches a syringe to the hollow needle and draws out (aspirates) the marrow. (The marrow is sponge-like material inside the pelvic bone.) The doctor repeats this aspiration process until the appropriate amount of marrow is collected.
On average, approximately 1,000 milliliters (ml), or about one quart of marrow is collected. Depending upon the size of the donor and recipient, the amount ranges between 600 ml and 1,500 ml. For example, a patient who is a baby may require less than a pint of marrow, while an adult may require more than a quart. The amount of marrow needed may require several incisions.
Posted by redchilipepper at October 29, 2003 05:08 PM