News

Donating life: Bone marrow registry at Dover

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Matthew Hubby
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
The C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program will run from April 26 to May 1 in several locations at Dover Air Force Base.

The program's goal is to register as many people as possible to be donors in the National Bone Marrow donor registry. Once registered, a person remains in the registry until age 65. Last year, the program was able to register 806 people, their goal this season is more than 1,000.

"All people have to do is fill out a questionnaire, then run four cotton swabs along inside of your mouth and it is mailed to Maryland, it takes about 10 minutes," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Meinhold, 9th Airlift Squadron flight engineer. "The program started at Dover in 2005, since then, seven of the registrants from Dover have been selected as marrow donors."

The registry will only contact a possible donor if they have found a match. If the donor has moved from where they donated, the registry will attempt to locate and contact the potential donor. The choice of whether or not to donate is up to the donor, but once they commit to donating, they must donate.

"On any given day, there are 7,000 people waiting for a marrow transplant, usually from cancer related illness," said Sergeant Meinhold. "In 2009, the American Medical Association released a report that showed marrow transplants can be used to cure severe forms of anima, such as sickle cell anima, which added approximately 70,000 people to the donor wait list. Right now, roughly 3 percent of the American population is registered as Donors. But we need more."

There are two different types of donations a donor can make, based on the need of their match. These are stem cell donation and marrow harvesting.

During stem cell donation the donor goes to the donation facility and the first four days they give a hormone injection to increase stem cell count in their blood. On the fifth day, they undergo the Aphaeresis process where they remove blood, spin it in a centrifuge and extract the cells and then reinject the blood.

During marrow harvesting, the donors go to the donation facility and meet with the doctor the first day for a physical. On the second day is the procedure which involves drawing marrow from the pelvis via a needle under general anesthesia. On the third day, the donor is released from the facility to rest and recover for about two weeks.

"The program is very supportive, they understand that it's your decision and don't put any pressure on you," said Maj. Derek Salmi, 436th Airlift Wing executive officer. "It's really a first class program, they ask if you want contact your donor, I chose not to. I didn't want any thanks; I was doing it because it is the right thing to do. When you put it in perspective it is good to be a part of something to help people get hope when they need it."

Once a donor has donated, the program will stay in contact with them to follow up on any possible issues they might be having due to the procedure. The time between contacts gradually declines from once every month, to once every six months.

"They may or may not call, it must have been at least 10 years since I registered when they did," said Major Salmi. "But I would donate again if they found another match. When you really realize the difference you can make in someone's life, you realize you can give people hope. It is pretty awesome to have the ability to do that."