A call for stem cell donors and how a fellow Indian saved a family during COVID-19
This is the story of an individual who was driven to make a change when the whole world was grappling with a very serious and indelible incident that will remain for a few generations to come.
Abhishek Padmanabhuni, originally from Hyderabad, Telangana migrated to the United States in 2013 to pursue his advanced degree in Information Technology. He was always inspired by community service and would volunteer since his teenage to contribute to the local community ranging from organizing tree plantation, blood donation drives, and environmental awareness campaigns. He believes that the values that were instilled by his parents and family continue to help him believe that serving society continues to be of utmost importance in life.
In September 2020, Abhishek attended a virtual meeting hosted by the Rotary Club of Silicon Andhra. The club invited speakers to bring awareness on Stem Cell donation. The speakers discussed many facts & shared stories of several South Asian diaspora facing challenges in finding a matching donor. The long wait time to find a donor while the patient endures a painful journey battling cancer makes the process more debilitating not only for the patient but also for their immediate family. During the informational webinar, he learned from various speakers how easy it is to save the life of an individual fighting cancer & the process associated with it. The speakers introduced many aspects and spent time discussing a few myth busters, firstly on what Stem Cell donation is, the disparity between the patients and donors in the registry, about a non-profit named Be The Match (headquartered in Minnesota, USA), and how they are enabling the chance of survival to many cancer patients by matching them with suitable donors, Bone Marrow donation and a few stories from survivors and donors. This session would then become an opportunity for Abhishek to realize the potential for an individual to change the fate of a fellow Indian 5 months after he attended the webinar.
Post some deliberation, Abhishek visited the website Bethematch.org in early October to order the swab kit that is used to collect the samples of an interested individual to join the registry of like-minded donors. Right when he wanted to send his sample, he was also dealing with a newborn at home and forgot to send his sample at that time. This was all during one of the peak seasons when COVID-19 was rampant, and the vaccine trials were still ongoing. He was not very sure of how to proceed with sending the swab kit he ordered a few weeks ago and was procrastinating in sending the swab kit back to Bethematch. After some time, he realized that the swab kit that he packed a few weeks back had become wet and then ordered a replacement kit to be sent back. It was early December by the time, he received the replacement kit and this time he was determined to send it back without second thoughts.
To his surprise, he received a call on Jan 14th from the Bethematch team (exactly 3 weeks since he mailed the swab kit) informing him that he is an 85% match to one of the patients suffering from Leukemia. This was a moment of realization only to understand that there was a patient who was waiting for help all this while.
At a critical juncture, he was very determined to help someone and had to face the reality at home to care for a newborn and life ahead if something undesirable would happen in the process if he went ahead. When he discussed the difficult decision he had to make in proceeding with the donation, his spouse supported his decision and helped him proceed with the donation.
Stem cell donation is a very straightforward process that is close to the standard blood donation but takes a bit longer due to the intricacies involved in separating the stem cells from the blood as the donor receives the blood and plasma back into the body during the donation, while the stem cells are collected in a bag and sent to the recipient. Abhishek traveled from the Bay area, California to San Antonio, Texas for the stem cell donation because there were only a few Apherisis centers open at that time due to the strict COVID-19 protocols in place. With the help of his family and a few close friends who volunteered to help at this time, Abhishek donated his stem cells on Feb 21st right when the Great Texas Freeze occurred and was a fatal weather incident for the entire Texas as there were statewide power grid blackouts and disruption to normal life.
Abhishek finds this entire experience gratifying & life-changing. He is thankful to everyone who supported him through the process. Fortunately, his recipient survived and has recovered from her Leukemia condition. Though he hasn’t met his stem cell recipient, he knows that the recipient is a female Indian living in the US and has recovered from her severe Lukemia condition that she was battling.
He recorded his stem cell donation experience here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fywx79NIa-A and hopes that his message reaches the larger Asian and Indian diaspora to save more patients suffering from cancer.
Bethematch.org, IACAN (Indian American Cancer Network), and a few clubs in Rotary International continue to strive and spread awareness of this cause. His donation story was recently featured in the Rotary magazine and is available to read at https://www.rotary.org/en/fair-chance-cure.
Bethematch welcomes interested donors from Indian origin due to the wide gap that exists today between the number of Indian patients suffering from cancer and the very short number of donors in their registry.
Many Indian patients unfortunately continue to look for matching donors and the myths around stem cell donation are one of the biggest impediments to the process of signing up & registering more donors in the registry.
More information on stem cell donation and the requirements for a donor can be found here: The blood stem cell donation process and recovery time.
About the Author
Abhishek Padmanabhuni currently lives in Austin, TX, and works as a Customer Success Manager for Snaplogic, headquartered in San Mateo, CA. He is the public image chair and an active member of the Rotary Club of Austin Cosmopolitan. He likes singing and continues to spend his free time recording Hindi and Telugu songs.
