Hadassah opens new pediatric bone marrow transplantation unit
“The new unit will significantly expand Hadassah’s pediatric BMT capacity and will enable the hospital to provide life-saving BMT treatment to approximately 100 children each year,”
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA father holds his son who had a bone marrow transplant at Hadassah during the ceremony to inaugurate the new center(photo credit: AVI HAYUN)
Hadassah Medical Organization opened a new pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Unit at its hospital in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem. The unit, in the Sharett Institute of Oncology, was established and equipped thanks to a $4.75 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.The unit functions within the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Immunotherapy at Hadassah Ein Kerem, and is dedicated to treating children requiring BMT. The new expanded Pediatric BMT Unit is headed by Prof. Polina Stepensky, a pediatric hemato-oncology and BMT specialist, and is managed by a team of physicians specializing in pediatric oncology. The Helmsley grant will enable Hadassah to double the number of pediatric BMT procedures performed to approximately 100 each year. In the past year alone, more than 70 pediatric bone marrow transplantations were performed at Hadassah. -“The new unit will significantly expand Hadassah’s pediatric BMT capacity and will enable the hospital to provide life-saving BMT treatment to approximately 100 children each year,” Helmsley Trustee Sandor Frankel said.Hadassah Director General Prof. Zeev Rotstein said that the unit will allow for total isolation, as is required following BMT transplantation for children. “A child-friendly environment in pleasant colors that soften the difficult experience; and most importantly, with our terrific team who specialize in treating such children, who need every hug and every specialist that will advance his/her treatment,” he said.
