——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Story #25 of 50 days, 50 Stories Campaign
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
36-year-old Mayur Venilal Patel, who works as a Diamond Polisher at Shree Ramkrishna Exports, Surat, Gujarat, registered himself as a Blood Stem Cell Donor in 2016, and he was found to be a whole matched donor for a 14-year-old female suffering from Thalassemia Major in 2020.
The donor was informed that “he is found to be a match for a patient,” knowing which he was super excited and immediately agreed to the donation process. The Confirmatory typing sample was collected the very next day after his approval for the donation process.
Due to the pandemic lockdown, the Blood Stem Cell Transplant was put on hold by the Transplant physician for a year. In 2021, the transplant center physician requested to Re-initiate the workup for this donor. Receiving the workup request and medical screening tests were done on the donor.
During the donor’s physical examination, the apheresis center physician found that the donor’s cubital veins were fragile and profound, so he was counseled for peripheral blood stem cell collection through the femoral vein. The donor agreed to the same. Once the apheresis center physician validated the donor medical reports, the collection date was confirmed, and the mobilization was planned accordingly.
All documentation went smoothly. The mobilization process was also got completed. On the day of collection, the apheresis center physician faced immense difficulty locating the donor’s cubital veins for placing the needle for blood stem cell collection, failing to find a cubital line, a decision to go ahead with the collection by accessing femoral line was taken.
During the procedure for collection through the femoral line, the donor was administered with local anesthesia followed by the search of femoral venous access to place the needle. Unfortunately, the apheresis center physician could not find a proper vein due to the donor’s body structure and vein’s deeper location. After trying multiple pricks on the donor’s femoral vein for access, failing on which, the doctor decided to plan for central line collection after getting consent from the Donor and DATRI Team.
The donor was reluctant to proceed further with a central line collection. Parallelly, the DATRI team discussed the situation with DATRI’s medical director, and he advised us to drop the idea of doing collection through central vein considering donor safety, as it is one of the fundamental guiding values of DATRI.
We checked with the donor to undergo the collection process in a different apheresis center with many experienced physicians. Due to personal reasons, the donor refused to travel for the same. Be which the collection was re-planned with a different donor.
Even this workup started and proceeded smoothly as usual, like every other workup request we receive, a sudden unfortunate situation on the day of the collection made this entire workup very challenging and the most significant learning curve for us.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
There are people in society who are willing to support or help, even if they face challenging situations. DATRI has one such donor who has agreed to support a patient in need but cannot do so due to her difficult situation.
Priya Fabwani is a 26-year-old who registered with DATRI to help cancer patients. When our DATRI Representative called to inform her that she was found to be a match for a three-year-old boy suffering from Congenital Dyserythropoietic Anemia, she immediately agreed to help. But due to the 2020 COVID situation, she was apprehensive of travel and belonged to Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. To donate, she had to travel to either Pune or Mumbai Collection Center.
As there were multiple restrictions and lockdowns during 2020, she requested some time for the situation to get better. Subsequently, in 2021, the patient was desperate for a transplant. She decided to take a risk and come to Mumbai. Her collection date was finalized on 10th April 2021. She traveled by train from Sagar to Mumbai, which is more than a 15-hour journey. She reached Mumbai on 3rd April and decided to stay in her cousin’s place until the donation process would complete. Before her injections started, Our DATRI representative Dev did a COVID test ( which is the protocol to be followed), and the result was NEGATIVE. Injections were started, and she was ok until Day 3 GCSF. On Day 3, she started getting mild COVID-like symptoms (Fever, nausea, Headache, etc.), and she informed our Coordinator.
After discussion with DATRI Team, Dev did another COVID test for the donor on Day 3, and it took one day for the result to come. To our shock, she was found to be COVID positive on Day 4, and hence, we had to stop the procedure. We can’t proceed with the donation process with a COVID-positive donor. The Transplant Centre was informed about this. Slowly, her symptoms increased day and day, and she was having much trouble. Dev helped her in all possible ways throughout her COVID journey. A strong lady who decided to help a three-year-old kid even during this pandemic was in much trouble. She had no option but to stay in her cousin’s place, locked in one room until her symptoms recovered. She had experienced much trauma in these two weeks, staying alone during her illness without her family members.
DATRI supported her throughout her tough times and was there to help her in all possible ways. Even after all that she has faced, she is ready to help the patient after a couple of months. She has promised that she is ready to come to Mumbai for donating her stem cells to the kid once she completes her deferral period.
DATRI is lucky to have such generous people who think about their close family members/ friends and think about the society/ patients who need them in these challenging times.
About DATRI:
DATRI is a Not-for-Profit organization founded in 2009 with a mission to save lives of those suffering from life-threatening Fatal blood disorders like Blood Cancer, Thalassemia, Leukemia, Aplastic Anemia, Sickle Cell Anaemia, etc.
DATRI is registered with the Government of India as a Section 8 organization, and all monetary contributions towards DATRI are subject to 80G exemptions
ACT NOW. GIFT A LIFE
About the Author:
This blog is contributed by DATRI – Gujarat Team.