Marylee Shrider: West Point student answers call for bone marrow donation
| Friday, Sep 12 2008 03:32 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:08 PM
Get involved
For information on how to donate blood or sign up for the bone marrow donor registry, call:
Houchin Blood Center, 5901 Truxtun Ave., 323-4222
Or visit the National Marrow Donor Program at www.marrow.org/join
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Joel Payne of Bakersfield, a sophomore at West Point, is donating bone marrow in hope of helping a a 55-year-old woman suffering acute lymphocytic leukemia. (Photo courtesy of the family)
Joel Payne is a young man of very few words, so when the Department of Defense called asking for him, his parents weren’t sure what to make of it.
Home in Bakersfield for the summer after a grueling first year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the 19-year-old former plebe forgot to tell his folks he’d registered with the DOD’s bone marrow donor program.
As it turns out, Payne was a possible match, said the DOD voice on the phone.
To Payne’s mom, Brenda, “possible” sounded more like “a done deal” and a risky one at that.
“After it sunk in, I asked Joel if he were sure this was something he wanted to do,” Brenda Payne said. “He told me, ‘Mom, why would I not try to save someone’s life?’”
End of discussion.
It's not easy taking time off from school when that school happens to be West Point and you're up to your chin in classes like physics, calculus and German, but when there's a life on the line — in this case the life of a 55-year-old woman suffering acute lymphocytic leukemia — you just do it.
Which is why Payne and his mom flew to Washington, D.C., this week, to a scary-sounding place called the Fairfax Pathology Apherisis Center, for the five-day donation process.
Fortunately for Payne, the center isn’t all that scary and donating isn’t as invasive as it used to be, at least for most donors. Payne received five days of injections to stimulate blood cell growth before the “collection,” during which blood is removed from one arm, passed through a machine that separates the blood stem cells, then returned through the other.
While it’s hardly a fun way to spend a week, there’s little risk to donors, who generally feel only a little achy once it’s over. But that hardly diminishes the selflessness of the act, says Fairfax Nurse Manager Karen Plewacki.
“Here's a guy who’s giving a person a chance at life, a person he doesn’t know from Adam,” Plewacki says. “By the time the recipient gets to this point, they’ve run out of options — bone marrow donors are their last chance.”
Last chances are big in the Payne household, where Joel’s dad, Mike set the early example, donating blood as often as possible.
Now, at age 47, Mike is one of the more youthful members of Houchin Blood Bank’s 16-gallon club; Joel’s younger brother Jordan made his first blood donation on his 17th birthday.
Brenda Payne is amazed by her son. I am, too. The thing is, there are a lot of us who could fall into the amazing category, but few in Kern County — a pitiful 3 percent of eligible residents — choose to donate blood. And even fewer seem to know that Houchin also serves as a bone marrow donor registry center.
In Houchin, there’s a chance at “amazing” for each of us. So what are we waiting for?
•••
Speaking of Houchin, I have an update on the trailer stolen from the blood bank in May. The field trailer, a critical tool in Houchin’s relentless pursuit of blood donations, was never found.
But Houchin staff are out and about once more thanks to the donation of a bigger, better field trailer from California Truck Accessories, Inc. whose owner, Marsha Pell has a hero’s heart, but zero tolerance for the end of a needle.
“My dad is working on his 18th gallon, but I’m very squeamish about needles,” Pell says. “Giving this trailer was something I could do.”
These are Marylee Shrider’s opinions, not necessarily The Californian’s. Call her at 395-7474 or write mshrider@bakersfield.com.
