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Bone Marrow Transplantation Aids
Seattle Victim of Sickle Cell
By Brenda Eatman Aghahowa
She suffered a stroke. For weeks, her left side was limp and she
couldn't talk. Experiencing a stroke and its usual effects is a lamentable
occurrence, but one that is rather commonplace, right? Not when the victim is a
5-year-old.
Seattle native Olufeyi (oh-loo-FAY-yee) Ogunyemi was diagnosed
with sickle cell disease at age 6 months and lived a very difficult life until
bone marrow transplantation.
Before her transplant at age 10, frequent crises related to the
disease resulted in painful joints and muscles. Olufeyi's life was dominated by
doctors and medications.
"I was in and out of hospitals and had blood transfusions at the
children's hospital every month," says the now-17-year-old.
The blood transfusions, given to help, actually resulted in an
iron overload in one instance. To cure the problem the youngster endured two
months of nightly shots in the buttocks, arms or stomach.
"I would get up in the morning and be really sore," she recalls.
She had constant fatigue, tired easily, and could not participate
in normal children's activities, such running.
The first stroke came at age 5. "I was really lucky that I didn't
come out paralyzed," remarks Olufeyi. At age 6, she collapsed after suffering a
heat stroke.
"After that second stroke, the doctors were worried that a third
stroke might be fatal. Everyone decided that I needed a more rigorous medical
treatment, some kind of plan to control the disease," she explains.
Her mother, Olayinka, is a doctor's daughter and had worked in a
hospital in her native Nigeria. She was certain that bone marrow
transplantation could help.
Olufeyi became the first child enrolled in the world's first
multi-center study to learn whether bone marrow transplantation could cure
sickle cell disease.
While there were some earlier transplants in Europe, hers is the
first of its kind in the United States, she reports.
The transplant, performed at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center in September 1991, was and still is considered a risky
procedure for the cure of sickle cell disease. Yet, the family decided to give
it a try as a last resort.
Olufeyi's older brother, Oludare, was a perfect marrow match, and
was her donor. "He was a little nervous about it, and I was, too. But he went
ahead and did it to save my life because it was the right thing to do," she
says gratefully.
Her hospitalization lasted a full month. After her discharge,
doctors constantly monitored her condition for four months during outpatient
visits to make sure her body was not rejecting the new marrow. The going was
rough initially and fraught with complications.
"At first, I was feeling really tired and not well," she says,
indicating that she also suffered seizures, resulting in two hospitalizations.
But through the ordeal, as throughout her life, friends, family
members and parishioners of an area Church of God congregation provided the
faith and moral support she needed to persevere to a happy ending.
After about four months of rocky recovery, the risky procedure
began to pay off, and has since changed the young woman's life dramatically for
the better.
"I'm feeling really healthy now. No more hospitals!" she says
joyfully.
"I can play tennis and basketball, and go swimming. I can
participate in all sports," says Olufeyi, a senior at Seattle's Garfield High
School.
Her extracurricular activities include participation in her
school's Key Club, whose members do community service volunteer work in area
homeless shelters, and is the Natural Helpers peer counseling group.
As a result of her experience, Olufeyi aspires to become a
pathologist, and is considering Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for
college next year.
Would she recommend the BMT to others? She cautions that treatment
and recovery are rough, and advises that one opt for this course of treatment
only in very serious cases.
"They have made advances in bone marrow transplantation. I think
it should be done in a really serious case [of sickle cell disease] like mine,"
she comments. |
