4-year-old thalassemia surivor meets lifesaver for first time

This World Cancer Day, Bengaluru witnessed a heart-warming moment where a thalassemia survivor met her lifesaver for the first time. A techie from the city had donated his blood stem cells giving a second chance at life to the four-year-old Shia from West Bengal suffering from thalassemia.

The meeting was organized by the non-profit organization DKMS BMST Foundation India, an international blood stem cell donor registry. Shia flew for the first time and came here to meet her lifesaver Debojyoti, a 26-year-old techie, who donated his blood stem cells so that she could receive a second chance at life.

Expressing his emotions on World Cancer Day on Tuesday, Debojyoti told reporters he had registered himself as a potential stem cell donor in 2016 and after a year of registration he was found to be a match. "I did not know the details of the patient to whom my blood stem cells will be given but now when I met her after all these years, I went numb. Being able to save a life is a feeling beyond words. It can only be experienced-cant be described," he said.

When this family residing in Kolkata found their daughter suffering from thalassemia, they researched the treatments available. Sharing their experience, Shias father Saifulla said due to lack of awareness about the blood stem cell transplant procedure they were turned down by the local doctors.

"We were told that our daughter will need blood transfusion throughout her life to survive, we were devastated but kept doing our research. We got a ray of hope after meeting Dr. Revathi Raj based in Chennai and she assured us of treatment available in the form of a blood stem cell transplant, he said. That when the journey to find an unrelated blood stem cell match began for the family.

With the help of doctors, they were lucky to find a match for their daughter within a year and she underwent a blood stem cell transplantation. Director of DKMS-BMST Dr. Latha Jagannathan said many patients suffering from blood cancer and other blood disorders need a blood stem cell transplant to survive.

"Unfortunately, the majority of patients are unable to receive a transplant due to the unavailability of a matching blood stem cell donor", she said. The registry DKMS-BMST at present has over 40,000 registered potential blood stem cell donors.

"We will work hard that this number will increase considerably over the coming years", she added. Pediatric hematologist, oncologist, and BMT specialist at Narayana Health City, Bengaluru, Dr. Pooja Prakash Mallya said every five minutes someone in India is diagnosed with blood cancer and other blood disorders. And many are not able to find a match within their families and hence need an unrelated donor.

This gap can be bridged only when more and more people from different ethnicities in India are a part of the donor registry maintained by organizations such as DKMS-BMST, she said. CEO of DKMS BMST Foundation India Patrick Paul said mostly, for blood cancer patients a blood stem cell transplant is key for survival.

"Each one of us should register as a potential stem cell donor and encourage our near and dear ones to register themselves too", he said. As per protocols, the identity of both the donor and recipient is kept anonymous for a period of two years and thereafter upon interest, they can be introduced to each other.

Ever since I donated my blood stem cells, I was looking forward to meeting the recipient. I only knew her age and today I am glad that I could see her and meet her family, Debojyoti said. Today, Shia is leading a normal life and is a hale and hearty girl who likes to draw and color and is probably not even completely aware of the condition she was in, a DKMS-BMST statement said.

All she knows is Debojyoti is a friend who gifted her something she would cherish forever. DKMS-BMST is a joint venture of two non-profit organizations: BMST (Bangalore Medical Services Trust) and DKMS, one of the largest international blood stem cell donor registries in the world.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)