Passionately accepting life's challenges

Bertha Wilson, a board member of Grand Rapids Right to Life and mother of four, was beginning to wonder why she was feeling so fatigued until a trip to the doctor's discovered that her blood counts were extremely low. All three types of blood cells - red blood cells (which carry oxygen to the body's tissues), white blood cells (which fight infection), and platelets (which make blood clot) - were all at levels far below normal. After further examination by blood specialists in September of 2002, Bertha was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare and potentially deadly condition that is diagnosed in about 12,000 Americans each year. Healthy bone marrow creates stem cells that grow into the three types of blood cells while the bone marrow in people with MDS isn't functioning properly and not enough normal blood cells are made.

Bertha's condition is currently stable, and she continues to work as a counselor at Mel Trotter Ministries. She receives periodic red blood cell transfusions to keep her red blood cell count at an acceptable level and has been lucky to so far avoid any problems with infections, a problem that can often arise when people don't have enough white blood cells. Although Bertha is currently stable, doctors have warned her and her husband, Luke Wilson, a former Right to Life of Michigan News editor, that she probably won't stay that way for long.

Bertha will eventually need a stem cell transplant to survive. After undergoing radiation and chemotherapy to destroy the abnormal cells in her bone marrow, she would then receive new stem cells through a peripheral blood stem cell donation. The donation would come from a donor who has been injected with a drug that increases the number of stem cells the body releases. The donor then has the stem cells in their blood removed in a process that is similar to giving blood. The stem cells would then migrate to Bertha's bone marrow and begin to make blood cells. There are risks involved for the patient in this procedure but they are greatly diminished if an ideal donor is found. Unfortunately, Bertha's diverse ancestry (she is African-American and American Indian) makes finding a perfect match more difficult.

In March of 2003, doctors at the University of Michigan located a potential but imperfect donor for Bertha. The current plan is for the doctors to continue to monitor Bertha's blood count and to look for a better match while she remains stable, but if the count on her white blood cells begins to drop, the Wilsons would then be pressed into relying on the imperfect and potentially less successful match. Hopefully, a perfect match will be found before her white blood cell count begins to drop.

Bertha is just one of many people whose lives could be or have been saved through research and therapies using adult stem cells and stem cells from umbilical cords. Besides curing people with rare blood disorders, stem cells from adults and umbilical cords have been used to help or cure people who have Parkinson's, heart disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, severe combined immunodeficiency, and people who have had heart attacks or strokes.

People who are interested in helping others through stem cell therapies can become part of the National Marrow Donor Program Registry and/or by donating their children's cord blood when they are born. For more information about these options, call 1-800-627-7692 or visit www.marrow.org.