Ajay Krishnan Nair, Software Engineer, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Ajay Krishnan Nair is your quintessential yuppie (young urban professional): he’s a fresh engineering college graduate, he works in Chennai’s software sector, and spends his spare time playing cricket with his friends and preparing for further education in Canada.
Ajay doesn’t just love cricket; he is committed to it. He and his group of friends show up without fail for practice early in the morning before work and weekends. It’s been this way ever since he played for the college team. “My college life was like in those typical Malayalam movies. Students bunk college, don’t go to class, but still end up scoring pretty good at the end.”
Like many of DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors, he learned about Blood Stem Cell Donation through an awareness drive held in his college. He was in the socially-wired National Social Service (NSS) group, where he volunteered his time at orphanages and schools for the mentally-challenged. He and his friends had registered together. “I completely forgot that I had registered, so I was surprised when I found out I was a match. When they (DATRI) called me, my mind went to the hair oil company.” (Dhatri, spelled with an ‘H’ is a popular brand of hair products in Kerala.) He was contacted by Aby Sam, a donor-coordinator from DATRI who also happened to be Kerala’s first stem-cell donor.
Ajay’s patient was in the United Kingdom. Due to various complications with the patient’s condition and the logistics of transporting the cells halfway across the world, Ajay would be required to consent to a bone-marrow transplant.
The transplant is the alternative to Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donation (PBSC), which is what most donors go in for (with a few days of GCSF injections followed by a four-to-five-hour intravenous process). For the donor, it involves a quick surgical procedure where blood stem cells are extracted directly from the bone marrow. In earlier times, it was very common for the cells to be extracted from the donor’s spine. Happily for needle-phobes, this method requires no extra injections. The major advantage of this method is that the procedure takes no more than two days of the donor’s time, followed by a few days of rest. PBSC is a five-six day process requiring much lesser rest. Though bone marrow donation makes is a shorter and more convenient method for the donor, for a layperson, the idea of a needle–the size of a drinking straw–being plunged into the base of the spine is quite an alarming image. Given a choice, most people would opt for the PBSC. It is by no means ideal for the faint of heart.
But Ajay is anything but. It could even be said, from the casual manner with which he recounts the sequence of events, that he is impervious to paranoia. “I spoke to my parents. My father said it was fine as long as I was confident and knew what I was doing. My aunt and my cousin sister are in the medical profession and they have both seen the procedure first hand. So, thanks to them, I had no apprehensions before agreeing. My mother was a little worried, but I said ‘No, Mom, I’m doing it.’” He is the third bone marrow donor from all over India, and the first from Kerala.
He got on a five-hour bus ride to Ernakulam for his blood tests and when they came back, he had passed with flying colours. He then got on another bus to Chennai for the surgery, where he spent two days in the hospital for the transplant. On the third, he travelled back to Kerala and took a week of rest. The surgery was conducted under anaesthesia. “I only remember closing my eyes, and when I opened them, it was done. I don’t even remember how long it took!” The needle was pierced bone-deep, and left a round scar the diameter of a straw. “The doctor said I needed complete bed rest for a few days and that I could resume activities after the injury healed completely.” Luckily, his holidays were going on, so he could take his time.
Less than a year later, Ajay is preparing for his IELTS, and striving to get into a Master’s program of his choice. “It is very safe and when you compare it to normal
Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donation (PBSC and Bone Marrow Donation is so much shorter. It’s fine, it’s safe, and it is good. It has a 100% chance of recovery for the patient. I had absolutely no side effects.
As Mr. Ajay Krishnan Nair, you can also become Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donor and save lives with DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry.
DATRI is a Not-for-Profit organization that was founded in 2009 with a mission to save lives of those suffering from life-threatening fatal blood disorders like Blood Cancer, Thalassemia, Leukaemia, Aplastic Anaemia, 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
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