Not too many students have the chance to save a life.
But Jeff Stewart, a College senior who is hoping to be a doctor someday, donated his bone marrow to a 58-year old man and gave him a chance to survive a potentially fatal case of leukemia.
A regular blood donor, Stewart had not considered joining the national registry of potential bone marrow donors until his freshman year at Penn. He had just stepped out of a pre-med panel when he received a flyer about a bone marrow drive organized by Hillel and figured he might as well give it a shot.
As he entered the Christian Association building, where the drive took place, he was somewhat hesitant about the initial testing, which included giving a small amount of blood -- but the nurse informed him that most people never get called, and that there were very few strings attached.
Since then, Jeff had not given much thought to the prospect of going through with the donation.
"I get a newsletter every year or so, but I didn't think it was going to happen any time soon, especially because the registry has four million people on it," Stewart says.
Last May, Stewart received a call saying that he might be the best match in the National Marrow Donor Program's registry for a patient in remission who still needed a transplant.
The Red Cross and the NMDP coordinate most bone marrow donations in the United States for patients suffering from diseases like leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and some immune system disorders. According to the NMDP, the group has facilitated 14,684 transplants since its inception in 1986. At any given time, there are approximately 3,000 patients searching the registry for a match.
Though Stewart was nervous, his decision to go through with the procedure was almost automatic.
"In the back of my mind, I was always pretty sure," he says. "I was not going to turn down saving this guy's life."
This response is not shocking to the people who know Stewart well.
"He's such a generous, outgoing guy that when I thought about it, it wasn't that surprising. He knew it was going to be painful up front, but still was quite willing to go forward with it," says Nancy Cooke, a professor at Penn's Medical School with whom Stewart did research for over a year.
As he went through the screening and preparation process, Stewart became somewhat intimidated by the thought of surgery, but he refused to back out of his commitment, even after his parents and grandparents expressed a great deal of concern over the procedure.
"It was scary going into the informational session as a healthy individual, and they tell you the risks," he says. "Even though they're unlikely, it's still scary."
On Sept. 8, he went to Hahnemann University Hospital in Center City for the procedure.
According to Jason Gangewere, who coordinates the bone marrow program for the local Red Cross and worked with Stewart throughout the process, the surgery involves making small cuts in the patient's back and then making several holes in different parts of the hip bone to extract a combination of marrow and blood. Only a small portion of the donor's marrow is removed, and it regenerates within weeks of the surgery.
While he was in pain for several days after the procedure, Stewart says he "waddled" to class the next day and brought a pillow with him.
After the surgery, the blood and marrow are separated and are flown to the patient's home city, where the patient receives the transplant after having most of his own damaged marrow removed.
If the transplant is successful, the recipient will incorporate the donor's bone marrow into his own and begin producing healthy bone marrow. The recovery process can take as long as a year.
According to a study by the NMDP, out of all the transplants performed through the group, about 50 percent are successful -- although the odds of survival vary drastically from case to case. Without the procedure, most patients have between a 0 and 15 percent chance of survival.
Doctors told Stewart that the recipient of his marrow would have almost no chance of living without the donation because of his age and the severity of his illness, and Stewart was glad he had the chance to help.
"It was painful, it was a hassle, but it wasn't that bad and I had the opportunity to try to save someone's life," Stewart says.
Now, because of NMDP and Red Cross policy, Stewart has to wait a full year before he can find out the identity of the recipient and if the transplant was successful.
Jeremy Brochin, director of Penn Hillel, says he remembers many bone marrow drives at Penn but does not recall any other student who had the chance to ultimately donate his marrow.
For Stewart, though, making an impact on someone else's life is not a one-time occurrence.
"He's got to be one of the nicest and most compassionate guys I have ever met," says Stewart's best friend Kelvin Lau, a College senior.
Stewart was about to leave for Croatia to be a camp counselor when he got the call that he was a match.
He had his first pre-transplant physical on the phone when he was on his train to the airport and spent the next three weeks taking care of children instead of worrying about the dangers of his upcoming surgery.
Before he left for Croatia, Stewart went shopping with Lau for the nicest high quality stuffed animals and toys that he could find to give as gifts to the 120 children he worked with over the summer.
He has also volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House and served on the board of Kite and Key, as well as the board of Hillel's Reform Jewish Community.
For more information on bone marrow donation, call the American Red Cross Bone Marrow Program at 1-877-261-6786.
