Photo By Jacob McDonald | Petty Officer 3rd Class Loany Moore, a hospital corpsman, instructs Sgt. 1st Class...... read more read more
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Staff Sgt. Jacob A. McDonald
50th Public Affairs Detachment
KUWAIT - When she was 6 years old Petty Officer 3rd Class Celinna Pascual didn't fully understand what was happening to her 15-year-old cousin, only that he was very sick.
When he died from leukemia, it made a lasting impression on her.
Now, as a hospital corpsman with Expeditionary Medical Facility – Kuwait, Pascual has taken the memory of her early loss and turned it into action. She organized the first bone marrow donor drive on U.S. military installations in Kuwait to help patients in the United States and around the world who, like her cousin, could benefit from a bone marrow transplant.
Pascual said she got the idea for a bone marrow drive here after volunteering for one at her home station in Yokosuka, Japan. Upon deploying to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, she looked into developing the program here.
"I volunteered for this deployment in EMF-Kuwait," the Sacramento, Calif., native said. "They said they had never had a bone marrow drive here. I called the national registry and the Department of Defense and asked how to have a bone marrow drive out here. They said it was very possible.
"They told me I could only do 500," she continued. "I told them to send me 1,000 and I will get 1,000. I am determined I will reach my 1,000. Other people are out there suffering from diseases like leukemia and lymphoma and I want to be able to help them even from thousands of miles away."
Registering to become a donor is a pain-free process. When donors come in to a clinic they fill out background paperwork, swab their cheeks, and receive a donor card and information regarding the program. The clinic sends the swab samples to a national database where donors are screened for potential matches.
Donors are registered until they are 61 years old and can be called in anytime there is a match, even if they are deployed overseas. If they are chosen, donors fly to Washington, D.C., undergo more tests, and the bone marrow is extracted from either their hip or spine. During the procedure they are under complete anesthesia.
Accommodations and travel are paid for the donor and a Family member. After the procedure the bone marrow naturally grows back.
"Your bone marrow replenishes itself and that is something people don't understand," Pascual said. "It is just like donating blood, just a little more painful, but you know you are saving a life doing it. You could be saving another military member; you could be saving a civilian, you could be saving a 6-month-old baby or a 16 year old."
Bone marrow donors are screened for several elements, including ethnicity and tissue type.
"It is very specific," Pascual said. "That is why it is so important to have all the servicemembers sign up here so they can find a match and save lives. There is only a 30 percent chance that someone in your family will be a match. We have many people transitioning through here with many different ethnicities and they are not here for a long time. This is the best way to target them."
While the drive focused on getting new donors, one service member is taking the next step in the process. Petty Officer 2nd Class Kayla Modschiedler, EMF-K, a native of Piqua, Ohio, stationed at Bethesda, Md., registered as a donor three years ago and has been selected as a possible donor match.
"I had completely forgotten about it," she said. "I got here and I got an e-mail saying I was a possible match for a person who needs a donation."
After answering the e-mail, she was sent a questionnaire and a donation kit. The lab here took her blood and mailed the kit back. Now waiting on those results, she said she thinks about the little bit of herself she is giving.
"It's going to hurt, but what is a little pain for someone else?" Modschiedler said. "If it were my family member I would want someone to do it for him. It is like the gift that keeps on giving."
She added that the recipient is a stranger, but could be a servicemember or someone in the military family.
"It's a gift of life that only you can give to someone else. Nobody can pay for it," Modschiedler said. "You can't go to Wal-Mart and buy bone marrow. They don't have it on sale."
Pascual said her vision is for every clinic in Kuwait to do a bone-marrow drive and have as many sailors, Soldiers, airmen and Marines in the registry to give hope to those in need.
"I look back and think about what would have happened if we had found a match for my cousin and he had a transplant," Pascual said. "Would he be living right now? Would he have gone to college? Would he be successful? There are a lot of what ifs."
The bone-marrow drive has concluded on Camp Arifjan, but will continue at the following locations:
Camp Buehring: Walk-in registration at the Troop Medical Center through June 30. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Camp Buehring: Walk-in registration at the USO 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. through June 30.
Camp Virginia: Walk-in registration at the Troop Medical Center through June 27. Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
| Date Taken: | 06.04.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2008 11:07 |
| Story ID: | 20103 |
| Location: | KW |
| Web Views: | 617 |
| Downloads: | 398 |
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