A lucky stem cell donor match has saved seven-year-old Y. Sarvesh, who was waging a losing battle with thalassaemia.
The class-3 student developed the potentially fatal inherited blood disorder when he was four years old. His father, Yoga Raju, a businessman in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, and mother Rathi Devi had almost lost hope. The disease severely affects haemoglobin production.
The child’s fortunes changed when the family got a call from Chennai–based Datri Blood Stem Cell Donors’ Registry, with the life-changing information that someone in Hyderabad was willing to donate his stem cells for therapy. The odds of achieving a biological match for such a donation are very high.-
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Yet, things were smooth, and the boy underwent blood transfusion every three weeks. He was declared out of danger after the stem cell therapy.
On Wednesday, it was an emotional scene in Vijayawada when the stem cell donor and recipient met at an event arranged by Datri. Sarvesh’s parents were in tears when they saw the donor — 32-year-old B. Chaitanya — for the first time, many months after his altruistic act.
The child’s mother, a homemaker, stood with folded hands. She had never imagined that her son would smile again. The couple thanked Datri co-founder and CEO Raghu Rajagopal and his team for achieving ‘the impossible’.
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Mr. Yoga Raju said: “Chaitanya is now a member of our family.”
‘Biggest joy’
The donor was thrilled at the outcome too. “I felt very happy to hear that I was a potential match. The fact that my effort saved the life of this innocent child makes me proud. It is the biggest joy,” Mr. Chaitanya said.
Dr. Rajagopal said Datri has 2,38,733 potential blood stem cell donors and was able to save nearly 290 lives. That may appear to be a small number, but the probability of finding a matched donor is just one in 10,000 to 2 million.