Patient Stories
Sutter Health Cancer Services
Lisa - 18-year-old Marrow Donor Saves a Life
A stay-at-home mother of two teenagers, one of Lisa’s most important jobs was to make sure her family was healthy and stayed current with their annual medical examinations. And she had a good system – each year she would schedule their appointments around their birthday.
As her 43rd birthday approached, Lisa went in to see her OB-GYN and while there she asked to get her annual blood work done. Lisa was feeling healthy, but wanted to stay on top of her cholesterol. Soon after her blood draw, she got a call that her blood tests showed low white blood and platelet counts and that she should follow up with her primary care physician, Raymond Turnure, III, M.D.
"Dr. Turnure asked me if I was fatigued or sick," said Lisa. "It was around the holidays, so I didn’t think anything of being tired. So we scheduled another blood test to be sure."
Lisa’s second test came back worse than her first and Dr. Turnure referred her to Sutter Roseville Medical Center Hematologist/Oncologist Donald Colbourn, M.D. Not wanting to waste any time for another round of blood test results to come back, Lisa opted to have a bone marrow test and biopsy. The results showed that Lisa had RAEB-2, a bone marrow condition and precursor for leukemia. Dr. Colbourn suggested that Lisa get admitted immediately to start chemotherapy.
"I wasn’t ready to start chemo," said Lisa. "I had to prepare my family for this diagnosis before I could begin treatment."
While Lisa thought about treatment, she also reached out to a Bay Area hospital for a second opinion. When results from that consultation were conclusive that she did have acute myeloid leukemia, Lisa opted to stay local and get her treatment through Sutter Cancer Center at Roseville and with Michael Carroll, M.D., BMT Medical Director in Sacramento.
Treatment for leukemia includes multiple rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Without the transplant, Lisa was only given a year at most to live. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of minority donors in the bone marrow registries – and an even smaller number when you look just for Chinese donors. Both of her siblings got tested, but neither were a match. Lisa’s parents started networking with their friends and groups in the Bay Area and held four donor drives. They even reached out to the Asian Donor Bank with more than 400,000 donors, but didn’t come up with a match for Lisa.
"I never really got nervous," said Lisa. "I knew God had a plan for me and I couldn’t do anything but be patient and have faith."
Lisa’s family, friends and church supported her through multiple rounds of treatment and weeks of treatment at Sutter Roseville Medical Center. They even held vigils at the hospital, which Lisa watched through her laptop because her immune system was too weak to allow her outside.
Meanwhile, the staff at Sutter Cancer Center, Sacramento searched national registries to find a match for Lisa. And her husband, Gerry, called almost daily to see if any headway had been made. And finally, they got a call that the perfect donor had been found – an 18-year-old female.
"I was so touched that someone so young would do something so brave," said Lisa.
Lisa had her transplant on May 13. She was able to leave the hospital on May 30 to begin her recovery at home with daily visits to the infusion center. Slowly she began to regain her strength and at her three-month visit she got the news that 100 percent of the donor cells had taken over and she was in remission.
"There are good days and bad days" said Lisa. "I have a long way to go to regain my strength, but from day one I never asked, ‘Why me?’"
Learn more about Blood and Marrow Transplant at Sutter Cancer Center.