Donor Needed for Baby

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Donor Needed for Baby
A baby named Trevor is fighting a deadly disease. The disease is called cancer. He has been treated five times with a chemical that kills cancer. So far, the chemical treatment hasn’t worked. His family hopes that a special procedure will help save his life. The procedure is called a bone marrow transplant. Doctors say he needs the transplant to survive.

Marrow is the soft tissue inside of bones. It contains blood cells that can multiply. Healthy people volunteer to have their marrow tested. The test is to see if it can help a sick person. If the marrow is a match, doctors can remove a tiny bit. Then the doctors inject the healthy marrow into the bones of sick people. This can help a cancer patient recover.

Sometimes these tests are done in one place. Many people come and have their blood tested at one time. These events are called bone marrow drives. A database is kept with information on everyone who is tested. Doctors use the database to match patients with donors. The baby’s parents hope they will find a match for their son.

Some firefighters are organizing a special bone marrow drive. They hope to find someone whose bone marrow will match Trevor’s. Over 550 people signed up for the drive. Over a thousand people have already been tested. So far, no one has matched the baby.

One woman is helping because her husband died from cancer. He was a firefighter. She wants to do what she can to help the baby. She is doing it to honor her husband’s memory.

The baby’s mother says the volunteers are heroes. She hopes that a match is found soon. Doctors say that a bone marrow transplant is the baby’s best hope.

Followup:
On April 25, 2007, Trevor Kott lost his fight with leukemia. A matching bone marrow donor was not found.

Over 5,000 people registered with different blood banks all over the country because of the media coverage on this story. Trevor's family say that is Trevor's legacy and hope that someone else may be saved.