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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii – Since the beginning of the year, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, has been focused on exercise Lightning Forge. While many Soldiers were in the field training to transition into a light infantry brigade, 1st Lt. Brenna Heisterman, an engineering officer and the executive officer of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd BCT, was on a flight to San Diego to donate bone marrow to a stranger.
Heisterman, a native of Clifton, New Jersey, displayed her dedication to the Army Values when she volunteered for the C.W. Young Bone Marrow Donation Program in 2011 during her sophomore year at West Point Military Academy.
“I was contacted by the program Sept. 23 last year requesting for me to have more blood work done for testing because I had been identified as a possible match,” said Heisterman. “I was then contacted again in January confirming that I was the best match for this patient.”
Her donor patient, a 29-year-old male from Turkey, is a patient diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. It is the program’s policy that the patient’s name and address are withheld from the donor until a year following the donation to prevent conflict of interest.
“The way the selection process works in this situation was the hospital in Turkey first checked for possible donors in the European registry, and after not finding any matches there they searched the international registry, finding me,” said Heisterman, a small-framed with blonde haired and blue eyed woman. “It’s crazy to think that out of everyone in the world who is a donor, including his own family, that I am his closest match.”
While Heisterman wanted to donate, the dates scheduled for her procedure fell during Lightning Forge. Finding herself at crossroad Heisterman sought the guidance of 1st Sgt. Keneti Pauulu, an infantryman and the first sergeant for HHC, 2nd BCT, who had been through the procedure himself only a few years earlier.
“She wasn’t sure if she wanted to do it because of the training exercise coming up,” said Pauulu. “I talked to her and told her to just do it and the chain of command will support you. It wasn’t like she was skipping out on the field, she was helping someone, and possibly saving their life.”
With the encouragement from Pauulu, Heisterman made the necessary arrangements for her trip to San Diego with no hesitation.
“The Program was very good about taking care of me,” Heisterman said gratefully with a smile. “They paid for everything from my plane ticket, hotel and transportation to even flying my mom from Delaware to be with me.”
Her trip to San Diego lasted a total of six days, which consisted of four days of injections, one day harvesting the bone marrow and one day of recovery.
Heisterman said, that after she received the injections, she began to notice minor side-effects such as bone pain, muscle weakness, nausea and fatigue after the third day of injections.
The morning of the fifth day of her trip, Heisterman began the harvesting procedure. The harvesting required Heisterman to be hooked up to a machine that would take her blood, process the parts needed for the donation and return the rest to her. This procedure took five hours to complete.
“During the procedure I had to keep as still as possible,” said Heisterman, laughing to her self before continuing. “ I couldn’t even move my arms to feed myself so I had to have my mom feed me. The hospital staff told me that after the harvesting was complete all of the blood in my body had circulated through the machine seven times.”
After the procedure Heisterman’s donation was given to a certified carrier who transported it to the patient in Turkey. The man she donated to was already prepped and waiting for his own procedure. Heisterman will have to wait a year from the date of her donation to learn the results of his procedure. Heisterman said she plans to try and follow up with the man she donated to after the year passes.
“I hope he gets better,” said Heisterman as tears trickled down her face. “Not just because I went through physical pain for the donation, but it’s sad to think about, someone is suffering out there. It feels good to know that I did what I could to help and that I have a chain of command that supported me donating. ”
Heisterman did not donate to receive an award or special recognition. She donated for the possibility of saving the life of another human being. She donated because she was living the Army Value of Selfless Service.
| Date Taken: | 02.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2016 17:00 |
| Story ID: | 189988 |
| Location: | SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HAWAII, US |
| Hometown: | CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Hometown: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 60 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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