I’m a doctor. I’m supposed to save lives.
But somehow, when there was a Bone Marrow Donation Drive at my workplace, I hesitated. My first thoughts were, “What a major procedure for a stranger” and “I can’t imagine how I would respond if I was called up as a bone marrow match.”
My selfishness arose to the surface.
My defense mechanisms kicked in full gear. I knew that the process of signing up to be a donor would take less than a minute. All that was required was a simple gentle cheek swab, just putting a little cotton bud in my mouth to collect some cells as a sample, as a potential donor for the bone marrow registry. But I was resistant to the remote possibility of being called up sometime in future as… a match for someone who was dying and whom I could potentially save.
I decided to attend the lunchtime talk anyway. The more I listened to the volunteers’ life stories of losing their own children to leukemia or lymphoma, the more I realized how little this seeming inconvenience was. “If there had been more donors at the time my daughter was 11, maybe she would still be alive today.”
In Singapore, at least 6 people are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or blood-related diseases every day. Most of them are children. Many of them will need a bone marrow transplant to live. Bone marrow is found in the cavities of our bones, producing our blood cells. A bone marrow donor can sometimes be found within the family, but if not, then a search through the bone marrow registry for a potential match is called for, and the odds of finding a match is as small as 1 in 20’000.
I imagined the phone call to me, “You’re a match.” How would I respond? Would I be stunned, surprised, scared? What would I be in the midst of? A busy work project, travelling, trying for a baby… Would I want to back out and could I cope with the guilt? I’m supposed to save lives, aren’t I? Could I say no then? Of course I could, but I wanted to be sure that if I signed up to be a potential donor, it meant that if the opportunity arose… I would say yes.
Yes, to taking time off work to go to the hospital to have my bone marrow harvested to save a life. What did that look like? Wasn’t it a needle into the hip? I didn’t like the look or sound of it. During the talk, however, my misconceptions were clarified. There are 2 methods of harvest, the first being quite simple actually.
- Stem cell harvest:
Just like a blood donation, one is connected to a machine for one’s stem cells to be collected. It’s a convenient way but takes a longer time of 5 to 7 hours.
- Bone Marrow Harvest
This sounded a little more intimidating to me (yes, doctors get jittery about medical procedures too). Done under general anaesthesia, it’s a process where one’s bone marrow is collected using a special needle from the back of the hip bone. Risks are extremely low. The whole affair is painless. Side effects like muscle soreness and a bit of tiredness are minimal and resolve easily.
What? 5 to 7 hours for the first method, and a procedure under anaesthesia for the second? I couldn’t imagine myself doing it. Even for a family member, I would take a deep breath. For a stranger? No way. I was full of resistance at the thought.
Then I saw the testimonies of recipients eventually meeting their donors many years down the road, and the beautiful new lease of life young people were given. Because of a match, a 27-year old malay girl was now engaged and getting married, a 15-year old boy is now a soccer player at school. And then I thought of my husband, Cliff- because of a matching transplant (albeit from a dead person), we are married today. I could feel the pressure behind my eyes.
“I’m only alive today because someone donated their bone marrow to save my life.”
– Reza, patient. (Source from www.bmdp.org)
What is a bit of time, inconvenience and transient discomfort if it could save someone’s life? Not just a human being, but a child, parent, a life that meant so much to so many people. Did it matter if it was a stranger? One donor put it, “Many are called, but few are chosen. I count it a privilege to save someone’s life.”
As a colleague tried to encourage my other colleagues to sign up, I was taken aback by some responses, “How big is the needle?” or “ Need to take time off from work ah?”
I wish they had attended the talk. Why do we reduce Life to a figure or calculation of convenience? Looking back, I am astonished by how unwilling I had been, too.
1 in 20’000. That’s the odds of finding a match. And if it so happened that that rare chance fell on me, I know it would be nothing short of divine. I thought about Jane Prior, president of the Bone Marrow Donor Programme, sharing about losing one of her three children to leukemia, and the possibility of saving another life like that.
Cliff , being on long-term cyclosporine for his liver transplant, actually has a risk of lymphoma as well. I can’t imagine losing him- I would give the world for him. And what I would give the world to come forward to save his life, too.
So with that, I signed up to be a bone marrow donor. It took just 3 minutes of my time before I hurried back to work.
For so little, we can actually do so much.
Be a lifesaver.
Be a Bone Marrow Donor today.
Find out more about how you can help here.
“You have the power to save a life.” (Source: www.bmdp.org)