News
Student Involvement and Employment Office to host bone marrow drive
The Pointer
jmath438@uwsp.edu
On Mar. 10, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., a life saving opportunity in the form of a bone marrow drive will be offered to the students, faculty, staff and community at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.
The Student Involvement and Employment Office, along with the Community Blood Center of Appleton, Wis., is offering a chance for those wanting to save a life to do so in a unique way by registering to donate their bone marrow to a match in need.
“Be the Match” is an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to be put on the National Marrow Donor Program Registry.
“Everyone knows what a blood drive is, and they have that image in their head,” coordinator Ruth Welhouse said. “Bone marrow drives are not the same. To my knowledge we haven’t done it on this campus before, and it’s something we’d like to give students the opportunity to do.”
Interested volunteers will visit Be the Match and will be asked to fill out a health history. A cheek swab is then done for later DNA and HLA testing.
“That is all the drive actually entails,” said Welhouse.
The tests are then done based on the sample taken from the cheek swab to determine if one will be a match for someone.
Patients needing marrow transplants go to the registry to find a match for them. Matches are then contacted for further testing and decisions are made on whether or not one will be a match and be willing to donate to the patient.
The match-determining process can take from one-to-six weeks. If a decision is made to donate, the donor will be brought to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Wis., for the extraction of bone marrow.
Two different donation procedures are offered to the donor, so the donation can also be made at the Blood Center in Milwaukee, Wis.
“It’s not this terrible, scary procedure that everyone perceives it as,” said Welhouse.
During the most well-known donation procedure, the patient is put under anesthesia and then has a drill inserted into their hip where the bone marrow is extracted.
The patient can be sore for a few days after this procedure, but it can be moderated with pain medication.
“There are people who have gone to work the next day after the procedure,” said Welhouse.
The other way to donate is called PBSC, which is a type of stem cell rejuvenation. Injections are given to the donor for five days to make the bone marrow multiply quickly. After the five days, the donor is hooked up to an aphaeresis machine at the Blood Center. The machine filters out the newly formed bone marrow cells.
“They actually prefer that over a hip procedure,” said Welhouse.
The PBSC injections will give the donor flu-like symptoms for about a week after donating.
“It’s an awesome way to be able to give back and to heal if you’re looking for something a little more unique than just donating blood,” said Welhouse.
SIEO will also be hosting a blood drive in The Laird Room of the Dreyfus University Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on February 16 and 17.
