Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9410200022
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Diana Meadows, the center's coordinator, will set up a display Sept.12 at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where she will be available to answer questions for the hospital's employees. On Sept. 13, she will be at Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Salem, and at Community Hospital on Sept. 14. There will be a marrow drive at Virginia Power in Warm Springs on Sept. 16, and one at Bath County Community Hospital at Hot Springs Sept.17.
Although the center will not be conducting a drive in Roanoke that week, residents are welcome to come in at any time to register, Meadows said. The center is located in the Red Cross building on Church Avenue.
The first step in becoming a donor is to meet with Meadows and discuss the procedure. If the person is selected as a match, he or she will have to undergo minor surgery, so potential donors need to be informed about what will happen.
"There's a lot more involved with being a bone-marrow donor" than being a blood donor, she said. "You're making a commitment."
Until a potential donor is selected as a match, the only medical test performed is the drawing of about two tablespoons of blood, which is then tissue typed. It's just like having blood work done at a doctor's office, Meadows said.
After a match is made, more blood work is done, and if the match is perfect, the donor is sent to a hospital, where marrow is drawn out of the pelvic bone with a needle.
One of the myths surrounding marrow donation "is that it really, really hurts," Meadows said. But the procedure is done under anesthesia, and donors say the pain afterward feels like a muscle pull or like landing hard on the tailbone. The soreness wears off within a week.
There are 600 people in the Roanoke Valley on the center's registry, and another 700 Southwestern Virginia residents on another registry in Charlotte, N.C.
The numbers are so small, Meadows said, because people do not know what is involved in becoming a donor.
The other problem is the fee for tissue typing. The cost for processing a blood sample is $60, which the donor must pay. Those who want to be donors but cannot afford the fee can be put on a waiting list, Meadows said. Once a year, the center receives federal grants to pay for typing, but this means that a potential donor must wait to register until there are funds available.
Corporations, churches and other organizations often sponsor drives to raise money to pay for typing, Meadows said. Red Cross pheresis donors, who give only certain components of their blood rather than whole blood, are eligible for free tissue typing after their fifth donation.
So far, there have been no matches made from the center's list, although several potential donors have come close.
The best matches are found within the same ethnic group, Meadows said, and there is a great need for donors from minority groups. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Indians are dying because of a lack of donors, she said.
A marrow donor "really has a chance to make a difference in someone's life," Meadows said. "Not just for the patient, but for the family, too."
Everyone, she said, "has the potential to save somebody's life."
Organizations or corporations interested in sponsoring a bone-marrow drive may call Meadows at 985-3018.
by CNB