Blood Cancer &
 Leukemia

Leukemia Cancer News - Return to Menu

Ailing IHS student in recovery since bone-marrow transplant

ELIZABETH QUILL

Bone marrow drive today
A bone marrow drive will be held from noon to 4 p.m. today at Barton Hall. The drive is sponsored by the Native American Engineering Society at Cornell University. Minorities, including Asian-Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, African-Americans, Native Americans and people of mixed heritage, are encouraged to become part of the donor registry.

ITHACA -- Steven Quach says the machine beside his hospital bed beeps for exactly 120 seconds when the tubes running into lines attached to his body get blocked. He knows because he timed it one day.

The lines connect him to huge, noisy pumps that feed him antibiotics. Most patients just hit the mute button when the pumps beep, but he can fix the problem himself whether it is a twist or a tangle in the tubes or lines.

The 16-year old Ithaca resident was first diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in September of 2003. The cancer develops when a defect in the immature cells in the bone marrow prevents the production of healthy blood cells. Doctors diagnose more than 10,000 new cases of AML each year.

Steven Quach received treatment in Syracuse until he moved to Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He returned to Ithaca and to school in March, but relapsed last August.

He has been in and out of Sloan-Kettering since then -- living at the Ronald McDonald House as an outpatient and moving back into Sloan-Kettering when his condition worsened at the beginning of March.

What Steven Quach needed is a bone marrow transplant.

Bone marrow drive

Friends and family held a bone marrow drive on Nov. 22, 2004. Molly Quach, his sister, helped set up the drive.

"The bone marrow drive wasn't specifically for Stephen," she said. "It was inspired by Steven."

Lisa Newman, a family friend, also joined in to organize the drive. Around 200 people showed up for testing. Newman said they were added to the more than 4 million volunteers already in the National Marrow Donor Program registry.

"Like anyone, you want to be able to do something, and I just didn't know what I could do until the opportunity presented itself," Newman said. "Then things just fell into place."

The registry matches patients to possible donors based on six antigens that are unique hereditary markers the immune system recognizes. Unfortunately, no suitable matches for Steven Quach were found, and he needed a transplant right away.

"They said 'your mom is the only match, and we need to do with what we have,'" Molly Quach said. "It was a risk."

Mother's sacrifice

Both Steven Quach and his mother, Julie Quach, needed to prepare for the transplant. Julie Quach received shots so that her counts for white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets would go up. Steven started receiving chemotherapy.

The chemotherapy literally 'shut down' Steven Quach's immune system, so he could accept his mother's stem cells. Stem cells make all of the body's blood cells. Usually, someone with AML, like Steven Quach, does not grow enough of these normal cells.

Julie Quach said doctors collected her stem cells by sticking needles in each of her arms that sucked blood from her body for nine hours over two days. Then she returned to Ithaca to recover for two weeks.

"I am pretty hurt, but I am thinking about Steven," she said. "Compared to Steven's experience, this is nothing."

Molly Quach said her brother was like Superman during his chemotherapy before his transplant, and he held in his pain. "He felt nauseous and constantly threw up. He had terrible headaches, really bad chills, hives. He accidentally hit his head," Molly Quach said. "He had fevers. He couldn't eat anything, and he just threw up saliva. He got sores in his throat. He couldn't sleep."

Despite the effects of the chemotherapy, Steven Quach said the transplant was no big deal. The doctors just put a "huge syringe" into his lines connected to his body.

"They push in the stem cells, and then the cells know how to get to my bone marrow," he put it, simplistically.

Recovery

Julie Quach said the leukemia has changed her son's whole life. She is glad to donate her stem cells for Steven. "I just want to hold my tears and not cry," she said. "I have to deal with this, and I have to be strong and courageous." She said she hoped he can return to high school, graduate and go to college.

For Steven Quach, certainly the past few years have been a roller coaster ride. He said his bone marrow is ingrafting his mom's cells, his white and red blood cells are normal, and his body is making its own platelets. But doctors estimate that patients stay in the hospital for around 100 days even after a successful transplant.

For the youngster, the hospital stay has actually been kind of fun. He even gets to go to Knicks' games once in a while.

Sue Paprocki of the National Marrow Donor Program said a bone marrow drive is being held today at noon, sponsored by the Native American Engineering Society at Cornell University. Organizers are looking for minorities, including Asian-Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, African-Americans, Native Americans and people of mixed heritage to become part of the donor registry.

"Minorities have a lower chance of finding a match because there aren't enough of them in the registry," Paprocki said.

Meanwhile, Steven Quach said he is being a good patient at Sloan-Kettering. In addition to knowing how to untangle his lines, he also reminds the nurses to give him his medicine.

"I know just about everything that is going on," he said. "And I knew this would all come out fine."

Site Map | Acute Myelogenous Leukemia