When Delta Delta Delta sorority at LSU asked Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity to participate in a blood drive this spring, Brett Falgoust, 18, showed up. But so many donors had made reservations that they couldn’t take him.
Before leaving, though, Falgoust and a friend were asked if they’d be willing to sign up for the bone marrow registry. Donations of bone marrow or stem cells are needed by thousands of patients with such deadly diseases as leukemia or lymphoma.
“They gave us paperwork,” Falgoust said, “and I thought, ‘What the heck? Why not? We’ve already walked over here from the dorm, so we might as well make it worth our time.’”
For most people who sign up, that is as much as they will do. Because of the difficulty in finding bone marrow or stem cell donations that match a recipient, fewer than one in 500 people who register donates, according to Be The Match, the National Marrow Donor Program registry.
Only 20 donations came from Louisiana in 2010, the last year for which there are figures, said Natalie Rowe, Be The Match account executive for Louisiana.
But, less than three months after registering, which includes a cheek swab, Falgoust got a call: He might be a match for a patient. He filled out a health questionnaire and was told he would be contacted if needed.
He was. Falgoust, a 2010 Catholic High School graduate, learned he was one of a dozen people who might match a patient and was sent to a local center to provide seven vials of blood for further testing. Two weeks later, Falgoust learned he was the best match and was asked if he was willing to go forward.
“At each step they ask if you’re still willing,” Falgoust said. “They don’t ever assume.”
He then had to take a physical exam at an NMDP facility, so he was flown to Memphis, Tenn., three weeks before his donation, which was scheduled for late August. Four days before the donation, he began daily shots of Neupogen, which stimulates stem cell production.
“Technically, you can always back out, but what they tell you is when you start getting the shots they stop looking for more donors, and whenever I started getting the shots ... at the same time ... her immune system, they pretty much just knock it out so her body will be accepting of it,” Falgoust said. “If you do back out at this point, she’s pretty much destined to die because she’ll have no immune system. ... They can’t make you, but at no point was I going to back out.”
After getting his fourth Neupogen shot, Falgoust flew to Memphis with his mother and stayed overnight in a hotel. The next day, he received his final shot, then prepared to donate.
As is the case most of the time, the patient’s physician wanted peripheral blood stem cells. Blood was taken from one arm, sent through a machine that separates the stem cells through a process called aspheresis, and the remaining blood was returned to his other arm. The donation took about five hours.
“You’re pretty much stuck,” he said. “My mom had to feed me. There’s a TV. My mom went and got lunch. The last thing they tell you is to use the bathroom right before you get on it because once you’re there, you’re hooked. You can’t really move.”
Falgoust would have stayed the next day in case another donation was needed, but it wasn’t. The donation caused little discomfort. The Neupogen shots caused low back pain that lasted for a week and a tingling sensation in his upper quadriceps, but he didn’t experience any nausea, as some donors do.
Falgoust only knows that the recipient is a 44-year-old woman with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Be The Match has about 9 million potential donors registered, but because of the difficulty of finding perfect matches, more are needed. Be The Match also has 185,000 units of umbilical cord blood, which is used in 22 percent of procedures. As for donations, doctors request stem cells 76 percent of the time, and marrow 24 percent, according to NMDP figures. There is a greater need for donors who are black, Hispanic, native American or Asian.
“The more people we add to the registry, the more chances you have of finding someone to match,” Rowe said.
For information on registering, go online to http://bethematch.org or call (800) 627-7692.
“When I was at the beach and found out there was a 1 in 12 chance ... I started thinking if this was someone in my family, this is what I’d hope they would do,” Falgoust said. “It’s about actually helping someone. You could save a life. Her chance of living goes from somewhere around 15 percent to 60 or 70 percent. Morally, it’s the right thing to do.”
Great story our of Louisiana.................MrCordBlood
