April is Donate Life Month
(Spring is a time of new beginnings, and April is the perfect time to donate life. There are a lot of great organizations, whose mission is to help others in need, that celebrate their cause in the month of April. In the next couple of weeks, we will honor the “Donate Life” organization and the “Be the Match” organization. We will be featuring the story of two local people who have donated a part of themselves to give someone else a chance at life.)
By Deb Kroon, staff writer
For the past eight years, Physician Assistant Stephanie Kroon has taken care of patients in the Cancer Care Center at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN. She works with patients receiving chemotherapy, having a follow-up check up or needing urgent care for side effects. Since she works in oncology, Stephanie is familiar with an organization called “Be the Match.” This organization manages a bone marrow registry that matches donors and recipients for bone marrow transplants.
In August of 2016, some of Stephanie’s colleagues organized a “Be the Match” drive in the cafeteria at Regions Hospital. Stephanie decided to volunteer. Signing up was the easiest part. There was paperwork to fill out and four swabs of the inside of her mouth were taken. With these steps completed, Stephanie was listed in the National Marrow Donor Program.
The swab sticks from Stephanie were run through a series of tests and a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-typing was done. HLA typing is used to match patients and donors for bone marrow or cord blood transplants. HLAs are proteins or markers found on most cells in your body. Your immune system uses these markers to recognize which cells belong to your body and which don’t. If you are a “match” to someone, your tissues are ‘immunologically compatible’ – your immune system may accept them into your body.
To read the rest of this article – pick up a copy of this weeks Murray County News or subscribe to our e-edition at http://eedition.murraycountynews.net/sub/account_login.asp.
