US mom buoyed by donor hunt
By Zhang Xuanchen |
July 10, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE US mother who came to China to seek life-saving bone marrow transplant for her adopted Chinese daughter is flying back to America today, after finding five possible matches and more than 50 donors in south China.
"In many more ways than I could have ever imagined, my goals have been reached," said Sherrie Cramer on her blog about her weeklong trip yesterday.
Though the results won't be known for a while, Cramer said on her blog that the trip was a success in bringing so much attention to leukemia patients. That's bound to increase her daughter's odds of finding a perfect match.
After visiting Liuzhou Orphange in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where her 16-year-old daughter Katie was adopted, Sherrie went to Beijing for an overnight stay last night, preparing to fly this morning back to her girl, who is undergoing chemotherapy at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Roseville, California.
The five matches found through the China Marrow Donor Program were expedited to the Stanford University Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in California and are being processed for analysis. The results will come in one to two weeks, said Li Tianyu yesterday, the interpreter accompanying Sherrie on the trip.
More than 50 people had their blood tested and registered as willing donors at the China Marrow Donor Program in Liuzhou City, said Li.
Thanks to the Red Cross in Nanning and Liuzhou cities, Sherrie met several medical professionals and received warm responses from local people after she arrived in Nanning on Thursday.
Her task is urgent because Katie's doctors have said there are only five weeks left for a match to take hold, according to Li.
When she was in China, her husband took care of Katie and her brother and sister, who were also born in China.
Katie was adopted by the family in May 1995, when she was 14 months old. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a fatal blood disease, in 2006 when she was 12. She completed four of five rounds of chemotherapy, which put the cancer in remission, and was discharged from hospital six months later.
But her illness recurred in April. This time only a transplant can save her.
After several fruitless tests, Sherrie finally came to China, believing it held the chance of a match.
Sherrie raised money for the trip through a community charity fair on June 27. Her friends helped her set up a website, www.katiecramer.org to provide updates on Katie and the trip.
"In many more ways than I could have ever imagined, my goals have been reached," said Sherrie Cramer on her blog about her weeklong trip yesterday.
Though the results won't be known for a while, Cramer said on her blog that the trip was a success in bringing so much attention to leukemia patients. That's bound to increase her daughter's odds of finding a perfect match.
After visiting Liuzhou Orphange in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where her 16-year-old daughter Katie was adopted, Sherrie went to Beijing for an overnight stay last night, preparing to fly this morning back to her girl, who is undergoing chemotherapy at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Roseville, California.
The five matches found through the China Marrow Donor Program were expedited to the Stanford University Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in California and are being processed for analysis. The results will come in one to two weeks, said Li Tianyu yesterday, the interpreter accompanying Sherrie on the trip.
More than 50 people had their blood tested and registered as willing donors at the China Marrow Donor Program in Liuzhou City, said Li.
Thanks to the Red Cross in Nanning and Liuzhou cities, Sherrie met several medical professionals and received warm responses from local people after she arrived in Nanning on Thursday.
Her task is urgent because Katie's doctors have said there are only five weeks left for a match to take hold, according to Li.
When she was in China, her husband took care of Katie and her brother and sister, who were also born in China.
Katie was adopted by the family in May 1995, when she was 14 months old. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a fatal blood disease, in 2006 when she was 12. She completed four of five rounds of chemotherapy, which put the cancer in remission, and was discharged from hospital six months later.
But her illness recurred in April. This time only a transplant can save her.
After several fruitless tests, Sherrie finally came to China, believing it held the chance of a match.
Sherrie raised money for the trip through a community charity fair on June 27. Her friends helped her set up a website, www.katiecramer.org to provide updates on Katie and the trip.
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