Japanese girl meets stem cell donor in Washington

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 28 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT


An 8-year-old Japanese girl who received a hematopoietic stem-cell transplant three years ago to treat a serious blood disease met her American donor Friday in Washington in the first meeting of a Japanese patient with his or her donor, assisted by a public bone-marrow bank.

Sayaka Terada, the eldest daughter of Eiichiro Terada, 39, of Ohio, met Janea Drummond, 48, a homemaker from California.

Sayaka developed anaplastic anemia, a potentially life-threatening disease, when she was 4 years old. The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) of the United States found that Sayaka's white blood cells matched those of Drummond, who was registered in the program.

In February 2001, the girl received a transfusion of peripheral blood stem cells from Drummond.

Through NMDP, the two started to exchange letters 2-1/2 years ago. Although they wanted to see each other, their meeting was postponed until Friday because such a long trip would have been difficult because of tighten security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and other reasons.

"I was really excited to see my donor," Sayaka said after she met Drummond for the first time. "I may cry when I go back to my room."

Drummond said she was happy because she could have a Japanese daughter.

In the United States and Europe, former patients and donors often meet each other at public occasions, which are said to contribute to an increase of people registered as potential donors.

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