A Life Saved, Friendships Formed through a Bone Marrow Transplant

This story is being shared by Kerry Jean’s mother, Nellda Friend.

A special wedding took place on July 9, 2011 in the little country town of Leesburg, Ohio. In addition to marrying her husband, Andy, the bride, Kerry Jean Friend, received an added bonus.  Also present for their first meeting was the man who literally saved her life through a bone marrow transplant, twenty-nine year old Todd, who donated his marrow to Kerry two years earlier.

The Low Point

In April, 2009, Kerry Jean, age 26, was employed as a youth director of a church in High Point, North Carolina and also worked as a physical fitness instructor. When leading exercises in front of a wall-sized mirror, she noticed her legs and arms were covered with little bruises, for which she had no explanation.  A retired doctor at her church advised a check-up. It revealed blood numbers that were dangerously low. A bump or cut could cause extensive bleeding or contact with germs could cause serious illness. Kerry Jean had wondered why she seemed to prefer resting in the evenings, rather than pursuing her usual zest for sports and much varied activity.  She found out that the fatigue resulted from low red blood count.

Immediate hospitalization and blood transfusions ensued, and the tests confirmed a diagnosis of aplastic anemia.  A preliminary procedure took place at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem in which horse serum was injected into a "pick-line" through her arm. After the designated three months and twice weekly blood transfusions, her blood counts were no better. The decision was made to forego the possible second "serum" treatment and go straight to the last resort - bone marrow transplant.

Two bone marrow drives to find a donor whose marrow would most precisely match Kerry Jean's took place--in North Carolina and in her hometown of Leesburg.  Five hundred people signed up to be donors by having their saliva swabbed at the two drives, and many more signed up online and sent in their saliva samples. In addition, $11,500 was raised to help, Be The Match, which is a nonprofit organization that links bone marrow failure disease patients with donors.

But the donor did not come from those drives. Other patients found donors from those who signed up, but Kerry Jean's donor was located in Spain, a cadet in the US Air Force, when he received the call.

Enter Todd

A few years earlier, Todd’s wife, Carrie, had read about a way for servicemen to donate bone marrow to save a life. She encouraged him to get involved as an additional way to give to others outside his military service. Todd followed her advice and provided the initial saliva sample. He received three calls that he was a potential donor and each time he agreed to an additional blood donation for more accurate matching.  Finally, he received the call that he was a match.

"At each point along the way, the organization representative told me I could opt out. I did not have to go through with it and could change my mind up to the last minute before the procedure," says Todd. 

He did not hesitate though at many points he could have. The donation process required him to shorten his vacation to fly to Washington, DC and be admitted to Georgetown University Hospital Lombardi Comprehensive Care Center. He started taking cell-stimulating medication to increase his bone marrow cells in order to be ready for the bone marrow harvest.  The harvest required Todd to undergo a series of 35 syringe probes to supply the 1.1 liters of marrow that were needed for Kerry Jean.  After his ordeal, Todd was asked if he would do this again for another unknown recipient, and he responded with an emphatic "yes."

Procedure and Recovery

During the week before September 25, 2009, while Todd was receiving his cell-stimulating medications, Kerry Jean was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy to rid her bone marrow of any matter that would interfere with her absorption of the donor's marrow.  At 7 a.m. on that day, Todd endured the marrow probes. At 7 p.m. that evening, at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State University, a doctor brought in a quart of marrow and sat with Kerry Jean while it entered her blood stream.  She became progressively ill throughout the process fighting intense flu symptoms which continued for days. She had moderate symptoms for six months.

Kerry Jean was showing great progress when on the 15th of October, it was celebration day! Her white blood cells, which during her illness had registered daily numbers of .01, .02, or .03, were an absolutely amazing 3.0!  All involved were hoping for just a 1.0 result. That was a guarantee that the donor's marrow had found a home in her bone marrow and was starting to produce its own cells.

She still had a rocky recovery; however, this was partly due to her reaction after receiving an erroneous combination of medications.  In March 2010, she finally felt good enough to go out with her girlfriends. It was her first time away from home without a scarf covering her bare head, and short hair was just coming in. A group of young men visited with the girls. Kerry Jean met a handsome gentleman with no hair (her husband Andy) and told him, "I know what it is like to be bald." She says that the Lord gave her a new "pick-up line." That acquaintance blossomed into a relationship that culminated in the July 9 wedding.

In 2010, a year after the transplant, Todd and Kerry Jean were able to meet online and they became acquainted. Kerry Jean's family offered to fly Todd, Carrie and their little boy from their home in Las Vegas, Nevada to Ohio for the wedding.  And that wedding - what a celebration of life! Kerry Jean has a new job directing a fitness center, a new husband, a new "blood brother" and a new appreciation for life. Todd has a new family - the Friend family - and the satisfaction of truly saving a young woman's life.