The Tell: A Memoir by Karn Mags

Author:Karn, Mags [Karn, Mags]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mags Karn
Published: 2014-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

“Your donor has backed out.” I look again at the caller ID. Yep, area code 212. Manhattan. We are packed, ready to board an Angel Flight -- tomorrow actually – for New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The actual transplant physician is on the line saying he is sorry. Again. This time it sounds so final. I step outside.

This is the second apology call in the last few weeks from this same physician. The first was to inform us that our donor had gotten a tattoo. Ink? Injected into her skin by equipment from a possibly less-than-respectable tattoo parlor? But it is clearly outlined in the paperwork that the donor agrees not to get any tattoos. Or piercings. Or use hypodermic needles to inject illegal drugs. No needles! He is still talking. I hear the hint of a “but” coming. But T’s case is so dire, there is no real choice but to proceed with the transplant. That is two buts. There is more. He has personally spoken with the shop owner and artist. They have assured him that they use only sterile, one-use needles. I can’t help but wonder -- what else would they tell him? We agree to proceed.

There have been literally dozens of conversations with the transplant team over these last couple months. Perhaps the most foreboding was the doozy of a call informing us that our donor was not showing up for her injections – medications meant to spur on the production of massive quantities of stem cells prior to harvesting. The transplant coordinator is trying to rationalize this for us. We have never met in person. She has a very Asian-sounding name herself, so I assume (admittedly incorrectly, perhaps) that she is Asian, and therefore expert in this topic. She is saying that it may be a cultural thing – something about Asians believing they should die with all their body parts intact. I hear myself countering that our donor wouldn’t be dying without her stems cells –her body will make more – but that my son will die without them. She has no comeback. I realize she has meant this only as an offering, a token. I immediately apologize. Perhaps she feels some sense of guilt by Asian association. Maybe she, too, subscribes to the notion of dying whole. I take it for what it is worth…our donor is having second thoughts. At the same time, my brain can’t really wrap around the possibility that someone would deny an eleven-year-old boy the chance at life. I am reassured, though, that this is not a deal-breaker on their end. They will harvest whatever stem cells they can get from her.

T has Fanconi anemia (FA), a chromosome breakage disorder. It is genetic, a lingering reminder of his biological roots. It primarily causes two life-threatening complications: bone marrow failure and cancers. T has been in complete bone marrow failure for years, managed only with high doses of androgens and steroids. This volatile cocktail, however, is no longer able to keep him alive.

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