Bone Marrow Donor
Gives Woman a
Fighting Chance

Local 1392 member Paul Freye

Today’s advanced medical technology could not give a leukemia patient what she needed: the ability to produce healthy blood. But one IBEW member, unknown to the 58-year-old woman, could help. So early this year, Local 1392, Fort Wayne, Indiana, member Paul Freye consented to voluntary surgery just to give a stranger a chance at life.

Chosen among millions from a national registry as a compatible DNA and tissue match for the woman, the maintenance electrician at Cook Nuclear Power Plant was told his bone marrow would increase her chance of survival from 15 to 55 percent.

The January procedure involved the insertion of a long needle through Freye’s lower back into the pelvic bone, where a liter of bone marrow was drawn out. The woman who received Freye’s donation received the new, healthy blood stem cells through a vein, in a process similar to a blood transfusion. Ideally the transplanted cells will begin to grow and produce healthy red and white blood cells and platelets.

"I had what somebody needed and it’s not available anywhere else," Freye said. "It’s a renewable resource. It’s replaced. It grows back in 30 days."

IBEWCURRENTS

May 2003 IBEW Journal