Gift of Life’s Donor Services Workup Team in Boca Raton includes (l to r) Ana Miranda, Sarah Fernette, Director Lindsey Greenberg, RN, BSN, Hildy Bell (seated), and Jaime Vitulano.
On Monday, June 27, 2016 the Gift of Life Marrow Registry workup team is coordinating marrow collections from five donors in three states. On this milestone day, one of these donors will contribute the 3000th lifesaving transplant facilitated by Gift of Life since its inception in 1991. Immediately after collection, the marrow and peripheral blood stem cells being donated will be couriered to transplant facilities to save the lives of five blood cancer patients.
The workup team that facilitates these donations is comprised of seven people, including Gift of Life Medical Director Dr. Bruce Lenes, Director of Donor Services Lindsey Greenberg, RN, BSN and five staff members.
“We are very excited to be facilitating our 3000th transplant, and to have five donors donating on the same day,” said Greenberg. “It is always a special week when we have a donation taking place, but having five donations on the same day is extra special because it means there are five recipients on the other end who will be receiving transplants.”
Gift of Life team members, Hildy Bell, Donor Services Coordinator, Lucy Sorensen Day of Collection Coordinator, and Sarah Weiss, Community Engagement Coordinator have an exciting day in store. Bell will be traveling from Gift of Life’s headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. to meet a donor at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. Sorensen, will be going to the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, and Weiss, will facilitate the donation at Apheresis Associates of Northern Virginia (AANOVA). At each donation site a workup team member is prepared to spend the day serving as their donor’s advocate.
“Gift of Life always sends a coordinator to provide personal support to the donor,” explained Bell. “All of our donors have one of us with them to make sure they get food, car service if they need it, and for support if they are alone at their donation.”
Donors also receive a blanket signed with personal messages from the Gift of Life’s staff. Coordinators report in with their manager every two to three hours, and meet with the courier and ensure that the transfer of donated material is accomplished.
Today, 80 percent of bone marrow donations use peripheral blood stem cells, collected via a process similar to donating blood plasma versus marrow from the hip. The donor’s blood goes from one arm into an apheresis (blood separation) machine that identifies and collects only the type of cells being donated and then returns the blood back into the donor’s other arm. Four of the donations being coordinated in this collection are peripheral blood stem cell donations, and one is a second donation of white blood cells to a patient who previously received a stem cell donation from the same donor.
Who are the donors?
These heroic donors joined Gift of Life’s registry either by submitting a cheek swab at a swabbing drive, or by ordering a swab kit online. Swabs are processed at a laboratory and the information goes into the registry, which is searchable on a worldwide basis. The five donors are:
You, too, could be a hero to a blood cancer patient by getting involved. To order a swab kit, to make a financial contribution or to volunteer, please visit www.giftoflife.org.