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Ten minutes of someone’s time could wind up adding years to another person’s life.
A bone marrow registry drive will take place July 21 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and organizers hope to surpass the number of prospective donors who participated in a similar drive last month at Stuttgart.
Medical personnel will be on hand from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside Heaton Auditorium to administer the screening tests.
“This could be the equivalent of saving someone’s life. It involves about 10 minutes total, with a simple Department of Defense form to fill out that will check for any factors which might preclude people from taking the test,” said Sgt. Stefanie Robinson, who oversaw the Stuttgart drive and will be on hand to assist at LRMC. “The screening test takes no time.”
Chief LRMC hematologist/oncologist Maj. Joseph Flynn also said it’s a very simple thing for people to do, adding that the final act of donating marrow is much like donating blood.
“I’ve been here at Landstuhl for four years and seen several people who were eventually selected to be donors,” Major Flynn said. “They tell me it’s a very moving thing for them to be involved in prolonging someone’s life and good health. We won’t be doing that at this drive, only screening to see who might be a potential donor. It’s a simple, easy thing to do that could be meaningful to someone later on.”
The mental picture one might get upon hearing of a bone marrow registry drive could in itself be enough to keep people away, though more than 500 people participated over a two-day period in Stuttgart. The entire process allows for more exact DNA typing.
“This is a simple screening test and there will be oral swabs used,” said LRMC oncology department point of contact Capt. Kenneth Davis. “There will be no actual testing of a person’s bone marrow and the purpose of this drive is simply to identify possible donors.
“All data will be put into the national registry and if there is a patient that a person matches with, they will be contacted in the future. This registry drive is simply a screening tool.”
Participants must be between the ages of 18 to 60, and in good health. For the Human Leukocyte Antigen tissue screening, all participants will use swabs to gather samples from their own mouths.
There are certain genetic markers which indicate whether a person is a good match to donate marrow and six specific HLAs will be sought after by the screeners.
“A lot of people have a fear of the unknown,” said Sergeant Robinson, who admitted that much more than 500 people had been expected at the Stuttgart drive. “If a person was a good match and was contacted in the future to be a marrow donor, they would be under anesthesia the whole time. What we’ll be doing at the LRMC drive is just determining who might be a good donor match. It won’t take much time at all to do that.”
Sergeant Robinson said the Stuttgart drive was the first to use oral swabs for the test instead of blood samples. Both methods yield the same results, she said, but the process of screening is much quicker with the swabs.
“Another positive aspect of the registry screening drive is the core group of participants,” said Major Flynn.
“The military community is such a diverse cross-section of people of all races and ages. These people are generally young and in good health. There is no more perfect group of potential donors.”
All military and civilian ID card holders are eligible to take part in the registry screening. An internet Web site at www.dodmarrow.com contains more information about potential marrow donors.
