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Local Bone Marrow Donor, Recipient Meet

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Aug 27, 2008 8:45 pm US/Eastern

Local Bone Marrow Donor, Recipient Meet

Reporting
Dr. Maria Simbra
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― For two people from opposite sides of the world, they sure have a lot in common -- they share their birth month, their birth year, and brothers with the same name. And now, they even share their blood.

A local bone marrow donor didn't realize how far his life-saving gift would go. He met the recipient for the first time yesterday.

"I saw an angel in front of me," she gasped with a thick accent. "And he looks so young, so healthy, beautiful. And I went to him and I hug him."

Larry Murdock, 63, of the North Side, donated his stem cells to Dahlia Schlesinger of Tel Aviv. She was diagnosed with leukemia. With some blood cancers, like hers, a bone marrow transplant can be life-saving. Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside the bones where blood cells come from.

"I didn't know what to expect when I signed up," said Murdock. "I thought, well, it'll help someone, and won't hurt me very much, so why not do it?"

Because they were a perfect match, Schlesinger was able to have a bone marrow transplant five and a half years ago.

"You have to hospital for one month in one room, it's very hard, many drugs," she describes.

A bone marrow transplant is tough on the body. Mouth sores, diarrhea, liver damage, and lung damage can happen as part of the process. A patient has to stay in a special nursing unit to limit exposure to infections.

Doctors had to destroy Schlesinger's own marrow first so it wouldn't reject Murdock's blood cells. Then his donation was transfused into her. Now her body makes blood stemming from the cells he gave.

His part required some preparation, too -- first, shots for five days to boost the number of stem cells.

"Then he went through the aphoresis procedure," explains Sharon King of the Central Blood Bank, "where he had a needle in each arm, and his blood came out of one arm, circulated through the centrifugal machine, pulled out only the stem cells, and gave everything else back to him."

A physician from Israel came to pick up the stem cells.

The pair kept in touch by mail and email. But there was a year of initial anonymity, where all correspondence went through the blood bank to protect all parties involved.

Murdock gets yearly follow-up by phone. Schlesinger continues to get blood tests and check-ups to make sure her cancer hasn't returned.

She came to visit him while she was in the states for a wedding. Now the blood siblings are inseparable.

"They're a nice second family for us," says Murdock. Schlesinger could only cry as they hugged.

Words come up short to express the gift and gratitude contained only in tears.


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