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JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, March 24, 2025 – Imagine being so weak that you can barely walk, you have a constant headache, and you can’t think clearly because your brain isn’t getting enough oxygen.
That was Roniesha Blaylock’s daily struggle before she had a bone marrow transplant at Brooke Army Medical Center in October 2024.
Blaylock was diagnosed with aplastic anemia in 2017. Aplastic anemia is a rare but serious blood condition that occurs when your bone marrow cannot make enough new blood cells.
“Five years later, it became really severe to the point where my bone marrow wasn't producing any more blood cells,” Blaylock said. “I relied on other people's blood and platelets to stay alive until I was able to obtain a bone marrow transplant.”
Her condition become progressively worse so she and her husband, who is active-duty Air Force, relocated to San Antonio so that she could receive care at BAMC.
Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Bradley Beeler, BAMC bone marrow transplant program director, met Blaylock in November 2023.
“At that time, she had pretty severe aplastic anemia, but she also had a very large PNH (paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria) clone,” Beeler said. “Her condition is very rare.”
PNH is a rare blood disorder that happens when part of your immune system attacks and damages your red blood cells and platelets. Left untreated, PNH can cause hemolytic anemia, chronic kidney disease or thrombosis (blood clots).
“Essentially her body had an autoimmune defect where it's sort of eating her bone marrow,” Beeler explained.
Blaylock was on various forms of treatment to control the PNH clone, but the typical recommended treatment is an allogeneic transplant, a medical procedure where healthy cells, tissues, or organs from a donor are transplanted into a recipient.
“We strongly recommend a sibling donor for the transplant,” Beeler said.
Unfortunately, Blaylock didn’t have any eligible family members who could donate to her. The biggest issue was finding a donor match for her. The problem was that her antibodies fought against all the donor cells they screened so they weren’t viable donors.
“We sent her to various units across the country for evaluation and they basically told her that she wasn't a candidate based on her donor search,” Beeler said.
In 2024, Blaylock required 99 blood transfusions to survive. That's about one transfusion every three or four days.
“It was so bad that I didn't have any muscle retention,” Blaylock said. “It hurt to move or walk. It hurt to sit up. It was challenging to think, let alone stay awake. I would run out of breath just walking from my bed to my bathroom. I couldn't go up and down stairs. It was hard to get in and out of the car just to come to my appointments.”
“I would say right before transplant was probably my weakest,” she added.
The team at BAMC didn’t give up.
“We looked, we looked, and we continued to look, and we were able to find one donor in Brazil, one, out of millions in the registry - one, and we were able to procure that donor,” Beeler said.
Since Blaylock received her bone marrow transplant her health has been slowly improving.
“The first three months were very, very hard mentally and physically,” she said. “I think I’m on month five and I feel fantastic. I don't feel athletic like I used to be, but I'm able to walk around and I’m not getting the headaches like I used to. I feel almost normal. I feel very happy.”
Beeler explained that they can tell how effective the transplant is by measuring how much bone morrow is from the donor versus the patient’s own.
“In the initial months after transplant, she was still about 50% residual 50% donor,” he said. “We were happy to tell her about a month ago that she is now 100% donor and she's transfusion independent.”
“She's one of my heroes,” Beeler said. “She's definitely one of the heroes to the clinic, and she's a great advocate for patients that have her condition. We're just fortunate to be a part of that journey.”
These days Blaylock is looking forward to her future. She plans to travel, spend time with family and friends, hold her grandchildren and dance.
“I'm thrilled to be able to get back to some sort of dancing. Dancing is life. Dancing feels great. Dancing brings joy. I dance with my grandchildren now on a slow basis, but hopefully I can get back to a little bit more ballet and salsa.”
Blaylock praised her medical team and the support staff at BAMC.
“You have brought me back to life, literally. I don’t know that anyone could have done such a great job. The whole team here at BAMC is just phenomenal.”
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2025 10:10 |
| Story ID: | 493555 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO - FORT SAM HOUSTON, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 344 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, It’s a New Day: Bone marrow transplant gives patient brighter future, by Lori Newman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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