Transplant Set for Nov. 7 for ABQ Child with Rare Blood Disease
Associated Press
An 8-year-old Albuquerque child with a rare blood disease is getting ready for a second bone marrow transplant that could save her life.
Kailee Wells is scheduled for the bone marrow transplant Nov. 7 at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, her parents, Linda and Owen Wells, announced Monday. She will remain in the hospital four to six weeks afterward.
Kailee, who has severe aplastic anemia, is expected to go into the hospital this week for chemotherapy and radiation treatments that will destroy her own marrow to make way for the new. With severe aplastic anemia, the bone marrow doesn't produce red blood cells that carry oxygen; white cells that fight infection; and platelets, which allow the blood to clot.
Officials have finished testing and processing the marrow, donated Oct. 17 by a 28-year-old doctor in China.
Kailee underwent a transplant in January with donor cells that were not a perfect match, but the transplant failed. At the time, Kailee's condition couldn't wait for a perfect match, so she received the best match possible.
However, doctors appear more optimistic about the success of the upcoming transplant because the donor marrow is a perfect match.
Her parents have said finding the perfect donor was a one in 10 million chance.
Linda and Owen Wells adopted Kailee from China when she was a year old after her unknown birth mother left her at an orphanage in southern Hunan province. The child fell ill about three years ago, and last year the family moved from Albuquerque to Wisconsin to be closer to her doctors.
The donor for the procedure is Wang Lin, a doctor from Zhejiang province, who donated blood in May and was told in August that a survey of 30,000 donors in China revealed he was a perfect match.
Aplastic anemia is uncommon. About 1,000 new cases are discovered each year in the United States.
news 
...go to bookmarks
E-mail Story
Print Friendly
