Ailing keiki bring out best in us
By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist
Last weekend's bone marrow donor drives for a baby girl were so successful that extra medical personnel had to be called in to handle the number of people who wanted to register.
The bone marrow drives for baby Ryan Ma call to mind the community support eight years ago for another little girl.
"It reminds us a lot of the Alana Dung times," says Roy Yonashiro, donor recruitment coordinator of the Hawai'i Bone Marrow Donor Registry. "The numbers are good. Very good."
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This weekend, at registration drives at Pearlridge and the Baby Expo at the Blaisdell, more than 500 people registered by giving a tiny blood sample for tissue typing. Alana's parents, Steve and Adelia Dung, even came to support the effort.
Bone marrow registration
First Hawaiian Center
Topa Financial Center lobby
Lili'uokalani Park, Hilo
Back in 1996, more than 30,000 people in Hawai'i joined the registry in response to a call for help from the Dung family. Many of those same people are stopping by the registration tables again just to update their contact information because they have moved.
"It's like we get whole new donors again because they become available," Yonashiro says. "One of the donors who came by one of the drives, we had been looking for him. So it was perfect."
Lise and Dickson Ma adopted Ryan from an orphanage in China when she was 11 months old. They came home to Hawai'i, and everything was blissful — for less than a month. Ryan was diagnosed with an extremely rare blood disorder. A bone marrow transplant could save her life.
"Ryan is 17 months old and is hanging tough, still in the hospital," Lise says.Ê"She is slowly getting worse, and we need to find a donor soon."
"The sooner we get people signed up, the better," Yonashiro says. "People ask, 'When should we sign up?' The answer is yesterday. Don't wait. Don't wait until a drive is convenient for you. Just do it. Just come down."
For such a small state, Hawai'i has 65,000 residents on the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, a substantial number. Still, for those critically ill patients still hoping for a match, that one perfect person is still out there.
"Seeing the people who come to the drives reassures me," Yonashiro says. "Even though there's all the chaotic stuff going on in the world, people still want to help."
Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.
