Stem Cell Donation
On December 1st last year, I made a stem cell donation for a leukemia patient. This is a report about my experience with the donation process which I hope motivates you to register for such a donation too and possibly give someone the chance to survive.
The first step towards a stem cell donation is (in Germany) to register with the DKMS (Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei – German Bone Marrow Donor Center). They analyze the characteristics of your tissue and try to match them with the characteristics of patients. The probability that two humans are similar enough is very low, so it is important that as many people as possible are willing to become potential donors. When I registered three years ago, I had to have a blood sample taken by a physician which was sent to the DKMS. Today a swab from inside the mouth is sufficient, so you can take the sample yourself using a kit you can order from the DKMS.
In summer last year, I heard from the DKMS that I was a possible match for a patient. At that point the probability for a definite match was about 50/50. With another blood sample further tests were conducted to get a clearer view of the correlation between the characteristics of my tissue and the patient’s. It turned out to be a good match, so I really had the chance to donate.
Before the donation, I had to go to a general check-up to make sure I was healthy enough for the process and that I had no diseases I could infect the patient with. This was done in the same clinic in Dresden where the actual donation was to take place. There I had the opportunity to tour the clinic and the people there explained the further process in detail. Until about ten years ago, the treatment of leukemia involved donations of actual bone marrow. This procedure, however, is only rarely applied today. Instead a drug is used that stimulates the production of stem cells so that they can be filtered from the blood stream. I had to inject myself with this drug twice daily on the four days before the donation. You can of course go to a doctor to get the drug, but I found it more convenient to do it myself. Giving yourself injections with a syringe sounds pretty weird, but it is easy. You do not need to hit a vein, injecting under the skin is enough. The side-effects of drug was that I felt a little weak, kind of like when you have a cold.
The extraction of the stem cells is always scheduled for two days, because it is impossible to know in advance, if one or two sessions will be required to get the necessary amount of cells. Usually, however, one session is enough, as was the case for me. For the extraction, I was connected to a machine similar to those used for dialysis. Blood is taken out of one arm, pumped through the machine where the stem cells are isolated, and then is led back into the other arm. You can move one arm relatively freely, so that you can read a book for example. All in all the procedure is not particularly unpleasant and I felt very well taken care of by the clinic’s friendly staff. The extraction took about three hours; a session never takes more than five hours.
It is not hard to save someone’s life.
