Kochi: In a first of its kind in the state, a 20-year old youth from Thiruvananthapuram has donated his bone marrow (not blood stem cells) to save the life of an unrelated person. This is the third bone marrow donation to an unrelated donor in the country.
His magnanimity saved the life of a 12-year-old boy suffering from Aplastic Anaemia, a chronic blood disorder. Bone marrow donation is more complex and different from stem cell donation.
Ajaykrishnan, an engineering student from Thiruvananthapuram, who had registered as a donor with DATRI, the Chennai based stem cell registry, agreed to donate bone marrow when he was found to be a matching donor for the patient. He never expected that he would get this opportunity so soon, as he had registered just a year back.
In peripheral blood stem cell donation, blood stem cells are collected from the circulating blood. This is an outpatient procedure and similar to the more common platelet donation. However, bone marrow is harvested under general anesthesia, where the liquid marrow is drawn out from the hip bone.
There are certain non-malignant blood disorders that respond well to bone marrow stem cells compared to the peripheral blood stem cells.
“I was really amazed when I knew that I became a match for someone I don’t even know. I request all healthy people in the age group of 18-50 years to register for stem cell donations and you could be a life-saving hero,” said Ajay.
DATRI has over 1,60,000 registered donors and has facilitated 204 donations including 20 international donations.
“There is always a need for more donors with the increasing incidence of blood diseases,” said Raghu Rajagopal, CEO of DATRI.
