Leukemia patient stabilizes after transplant

A Shanghai girl suffering from leukemia was in stable condition Tuesday after doctors found a substitute bone marrow donor for her after the first backed out, a Hunan Province-based newspaper reported Tuesday.

The girl, who was not identified, was supposed to receive the bone marrow of a donor from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but the unidentified man balked as he prepared to make the donation on January 23, according to a report in the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

The donor's family had worried that donating bone marrow would damage his health, said Zhang Zan, an employee from the Hunan Province office of the Chinese Marrow Donor Program (CMDP).

The donor's refusal came at a bad time for the girl, who had already undergone treatment to prepare for the transplant that left her immune system devastated, Zhang said. She needed the transplant to survive.

Fortunately, doctors had identified two suitable donors for the girl earlier this month through the CMDP, Zhang said. The Hunan office of the CMDP called on the other donor, an unidentified woman from Hunan Province, on January 23 to provide the bone marrow. The woman agreed without hesitation and arrived at a hospital in Changsha, Hunan Province, at 5 am Thursday.

The woman donated 200 milliliters of hemopoietic stem cells on Monday morning. The girl's doctors flew to Changsha to retrieve the donation and returned to Shanghai the same day. The girl received the transplant that evening.

Very few donors in Shanghai have reneged on their promise to donate bone marrow as refusal can be very dangerous for transplant patients, said Cui Yuefang, vice director of the Information Department at the Shanghai Branch of the Red Cross Society of China.

Zhang implored blood marrow donors not to break their commitments once they agree to make a donation. She also said that the procedure to remove the marrow is safe.