Progress!

As some may be aware I had a significant early career in the Organ Donation and Transplantation field. It was extremely rewarding, and I got to work with wonderful people including (and most importantly) Donor Families, and of course brilliant surgeons from around the world. I was blessed and privileged to know and work alongside the 'Grandfather of Liver Transplantation' Dr. Thomas Starzl and it was during that time that I was part of a program in Pittsburgh, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) that recovered bone marrow from organ donors to be transplanted alongside the larger organs to assist in preventing severe organ rejection (you can read about the Chimera effect in Dr. Thomas Starzl's book The Puzzle People). It was during that time that I was interested in why we were not recovering bone marrow for cancer treatments, it seemed like a no brainer as part of the issue with Bone Marrow Donation is finding a willing and matching donor and the fact that the procedure to recover the marrow from a living donor was quite painful for the donor. When you have a literally large amount of marrow available from a deceased organ donor you eliminate all those issues other than the match. The answer I received was the storage was too costly to just bank the marrow until a match was found. It looks like that is no longer the case! Wonderful opportunity for donor families and cancer patients here. I have always told people, when asked about my time in this field, what I really did was meet the most special and loving individuals at the worst time of their lives and I helped them give the gift of HOPE to those awaiting organ and tissue transplantation. I am hopeful this new opportunity continues that gift. https://www.wired.com/story/stem-cell-donation-deceased-ossium-bone-marrow-cancer-leukemia

#organdonation #bonemarrow #UPMC #thomasstarzl #transplantation #chimera #healthcare #life