German stem cell saves Kerala girl

“She had a relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia or bone marrow cancer and her chances of survival were slim. So we suggested allogenic stem cell transplantation, or transfer of stem cells from a healthy person, to save the patient and a potentially matching donor was needed,” said Dr Neeraj Sidharthan, head of Stem Cell Transplant Unit at AIMS.

The German-based international registry DKMS and the national registry DATRI were approached to find a donor and a donor was found who was completely matching (human leukocyte antigen count of 10/10).

“Once the match was found, the patient was admitted to the bone marrow transplant unit at the institute for pre-transplant tests and requisite treatment ahead of the cell transfusion like administering chemotherapeutic drugs to stave off any side effects, as it was an international donor of the opposite sex,” said Dr Neeraj.

The cells were collected from the donor and airlifted from Dusseldorf to Cologne in Germany, and from there to Kochi via Abu Dhabi. It was received at the airport by a team of doctors and the father of the girl and transferred to AIMS. The same night, tests were done to find out the CD 34+ cell count and the requisite stem cells transfused on the girl by a team of multi-disciplinary specialists led by Dr Sidharthan.

He said, apprehensions and lack of awareness prevented people from donating in the case of Prof Nalini Ambady. Only one lakh in India have signed up for bone-marrow donation in India as against 10.5 million in the United States.