Airmen donate marrow, save lives

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Alessandra N. Hurley
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  The 28th Medical Group is sponsoring a Department of Defense Bone Marrow Donor Program registration drive, Feb. 14 through 18.

The week-long donor registration will consist of outreach drives at various squadrons around base, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the base exchange, in addition to a walk-in basis at the base clinic.

"I'm available to help anybody register at any time, any day," said Maj. Rachelle Hartze, 28th MDG health care integrator. "Less than 2 percent of registered donors are a match for those in need of this treatment and this is really a last resort for them. Doctors will exhaust all other possible treatments before they resort to bone marrow transplants, and rarely are they able to find a match within a patient's immediate family members. This is why it is so important to increase the percentage of registered matches by helping as many volunteers get registered as we possibly can."

Those who register to be donors will have their information uploaded to both the DoD registry as well as the national registry and will remain in the system. Once registered, there is no need to register again; donors will only need to update contact information as it changes.

Major Hartze, who led a marrow donor registration drive at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, was recognized by the White House DoD Marrow Donor Program coordinator for having the most registrations of any DoD-wide registration drive that year.

"I'm very passionate about this program," Major Hartze said. "Donating bone marrow can potentially cure 70 different illnesses or at the very least extend someone's life. As both a nurse and a daughter who lost a parent to cancer, I would have done anything to save my father's life if he could have benefitted from a bone marrow transplant. I would just as willingly do the same for someone I don't know. Donating just 5 percent of my bone marrow is a very small act if it can help save someone's life."

Many members who might be otherwise disqualified for blood donation due to low iron, tattoos, piercings, time spent overseas or positive diagnoses for tuberculosis may still be eligible to register as a bone marrow donor. The only disqualifiers for bone marrow donation include a history of cancers (excluding skin cancer), HIV or other immune disorders or being younger than 18 or older than 60.

The registration process is completely voluntary, free and takes only approximately 15 minutes. Registered donors may opt out of the process at any time, from the time they provide their information to the moment the doctor is about to begin the procedure.

Alicia Mehl, wife of Tech. Sgt. Michael Mehl, 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron specialist section chief, registered for bone marrow donation while serving in the Air Force as a supply journeyman assigned to the 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron Pope Air Force Base, N.C.

"When I was deployed to Southwest Asia in 2006, a fellow Airman shared a slide show of her 7-year-old son she had recently lost to leukemia," Mrs. Mehl said. "After speaking with her and doing some further research, I signed up to donate my bone marrow so that I might be able to spare a mother from the pain of losing her child."

Mrs. Mehl was contacted by the DoD as a potential match twice after she registered. In 2007, she was flown, all-expenses paid, to Washington, D.C., where her stem cells were removed from her arm and given to a 55-year-old woman with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

"I later learned that after just six months of receiving my healthy cells, the recipient was able to resume all pre-cancer activities," Mrs. Mehl said. "When I sent her a letter one year after the transplant, she wrote me back and told me she had been cleared of all cancer. I learned she had a daughter only slightly older than I am. It's a great feeling to know that I saved someone's mom. It feels really good to know that after her family probably prayed with all their heart for a good match, I was the one person who was able to be that for them."