Positivity: A Life-saver from Across the Country

From Victoria, Texas, via Maryland:

Maryland student donates his bone marrow to Victorian with deadly cancer
July 01, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY REBECCA HOLM - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
A year ago, a Maryland college student saved the life of Victoria’s Buddy Kamin without ever visiting Texas.

And this weekend, the two met for the first time to celebrate selflessness and to say thanks.
On Friday evening, local furniture storeowner Buddy Kamin sat on a couch in his home, nervously anticipating the arrival of the total stranger who saved his life. Kamin flew 21-year-old Andrew Friedson, his parents and siblings to Victoria, to thank him for taking part in a procedure that saved the 57-year-old businessman’s life.

“It’s hard to wrap your hands around it,” the college senior said of the life-saving process.

THE DIAGNOSIS
After suffering from swollen lymph nodes in March 2005, Kamin visited his doctor and was soon diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I was absolutely devastated,” he said.

Kamin’s wife, Gormeen Kamin, explained that after the diagnosis, her husband went through many months of intensive chemotherapy and radiation. Since his treatments were so frequent, the couple temporarily moved into an apartment in Houston near M.D. Anderson, where Kamin was receiving his treatments.

“Sometimes it retards (the cancer), but, after a while, it came back,” Mrs. Kamin said.

A different treatment

After over half a year of treatment, Kamin’s doctor, Dr. Issa Kahouri, suggested a controversial type of therapy, stem-cell replacement.
In order to receive the treatment, the family would need a donor, someone whose bone marrow matched Kamin’s. Each of the Kamin’s three sons and Kamin’s brother were tested. None of them were a match.

M.D. Anderson searched their databases and came up with a match: a 20-year-old Maryland man. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.