Finding compatible bone marrow could save the lives of a toddler and a 31-year-old father, both named Adam.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHUpdated: SEPTEMBER 18, 2016 23:12Adam Goman(photo credit: HADASSAH MEDICAL ORGANIZASTION)
A national campaign will be held September 28 to find compatible bone marrow for a two-year-old with a serious blood disorder that will turn into leukemia, and a 31-yearold father with blood cancer.The bone marrow tissue-typing banks at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem and the Ma’avak Lehayim (Struggle for Life) organization are trying to find suitable donors and raise NIS 4 million to pay for the testing of saliva samples after no compatible tissue types for the two Adams were found in other such institutions around the world. Each saliva sample costs NIS 200 to process.The toddler, Adam Goman, who lives in Modi’in with his parents, Oksana and Mikhail, and his five-year-old brother Daniel, was diagnosed a few months ago with myelodysplasia.The condition causes ineffective production of blood cells and “hides” leukemia until it breaks out. The only thing that can save his life is a compatible bone-marrow transplant, taken from a blood donation.Adam Krief, an Israeli father of a three-year-old, two-year-old and eight-month old who is currently living in California, has an especially virulent type of leukemia. He has undergone chemotherapy three times, but without success and is now being treated at the City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles.His condition declined recently, and he urgently needs a bone-marrow transplant.Potential donors must be between 18 and 45 years of age, healthy and must not have given a sample to any bone-marrow bank in the past.The saliva sample campaign will be held in various spots around the country from 9:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28.