COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
An extra credit project five years ago in college recently became an opportunity to give someone
a second shot at life for a Lexington woman.
Ashley Warren, 25, says just a few weeks ago
she received a phone call from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
registry. She says she had almost forgot that she signed up on the national
database for bonus points in a microbiology class at the University of South
Carolina.
"It was the difference between a B+ and an A
on one exam, and I asked the teacher for extra credit and they said I could go
sign up to be on the marrow registry, and so I did it," said Ashley.
Ashley said from the time she signed up to
now, several things have changed in her life. "I got married, moved three
times, my husband is in the military so we were moving all across the nation,
[and I] changed my last name," she added. Ashley's now also an emergency room
nurse at Lexington Medical Center. She says with all the changes that's why she
was even more surprised to receive the phone call from NMDP. "It was like oh
wow, this must not be real… they probably just want me to update some things,"
she said.
But Ashley said it wasn't long before she
realized officials at the NMDP weren't just catching up. "They were like,
‘You're a preliminary match, so you need to go do more testing,' and then I was
like, ‘Oh gosh… this is real'," added Ashley.
Ashley says all she was told about the
donation request was that somewhere there was a middle-aged woman she had never
met whose own marrow was failing her, but she says that's all she needed to
know. "I just keep thinking about her and she's had a little more life than me,
so she probably has family and kids and people who are relying on her and who
have just as much hope in her getting cured as she does," added Ashley.
The day after her confirmatory testing,
Ashley learned she was the mystery woman's perfect match. "I just thought
because I was adopted later in life that what are the odds that I'd be matched
with someone," said Ashley. "I probably wouldn't match my family so if anyone
in my family ever got sick, who would do it for them?" she added.
Ashley went through a physical which meant
more needles, pregnancy tests, radiology studies and EKGs. She was placed on an
iron supplement and a few weeks later was flown to Washington, D.C. for the
donation.
"The hope is that my bone marrow which is
healthy will take over in her body and start making healthy bone marrow," said
Ashley.
Ashley says her experience was a lot less
painful than she expected. She says she was under anesthesia, and doctors took
a little more than a liter of bone marrow through two incisions at the top of
her pelvis. "I remember feeling nauseous and feeling some mild pain in my back,
but they took really good care of it," said Ashley. "It wasn't long before I
had pain medication and nausea medication."
Ashley may not know the outcome of her
donation or who the recipient was for some time. "In a year or so if I'm
willing and she's willing and there was a cure that occurred, then we might have an opportunity to cross paths one day," she said.
While she hopes for that day, she's hoping
more people will now sign up on the national registry.
"Who knows, maybe in five years, maybe in six
months, you'll be called and have the possibility of helping save a life," said
Ashley. "Now that I'm a nurse and have been through it and know more about it,
I would have done it without extra credit," she laughed.
Ashley also blogged about her donation
experience. http://ashleyembeeshaw.blogspot.com/
She says while several people have told her she is a bit of a hero, she doesn't
feel that way. "I don't really feel like I'm a hero. I feel like I did what it
took to help someone to live, and I don't really think that is heroic or
brave," said Ashley. "I just think it's just one of those things that God kind
of aligned for me to do. You know I just felt like that was part of my purpose
at this point in my life," she added.
If you want to learn more about becoming a
bone marrow donor visit www.bethematch.org.
Copyright 2012 WIS. All rights reserved.
