Ilana and David Adams of East Brunswick were both tested at a Rutgers Hillel drive about seven years ago and later matched as bone marrow and stem cell donors. Others will get the opportunity to be tested March 15 at a joint health fair sponsored by the Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley and St. Peter’s University Hospital.
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March 3, 2009
Three months ago Jackie Kelin of Edison had the pleasure of seeing her daughter get married. In the months to come she will see her son graduate from Moshe Aaron Yeshiva High School.
These simhas are things any parent would expect to experience, except Kelin believed she’d be dead long before they occurred.
“I was in the hospital, literally on my deathbed,” recalled the 48-year-old Kelin, who suffered from a virulent form of leukemia.
She was so close to death, her daughter, Avital, now 21, was rushed home from an eighth grade trip to see her mother. People had gathered around her bed to say tehillimi (psalms). However, Kelin’s life was saved eight years ago after she received donations of bone marrow and stem cells.
Others can have the opportunity to fulfill the mitzva of saving a life by being tested March 15 at the health fair being jointly sponsored by the Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley and St. Peter’s University Hospital at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison.
The testing for stem cell and bone marrow compatibility — which requires only a cheek swab — is being conducted by the HLA Registry.
“Today I am cancer-free,” said Kelin who went through a long recovery and looks back with a sense of sadness for the time lost, as well as optimism for the future.
“I missed my daughter’s high school graduation because I was in the hospital, so being at her wedding was very emotional,” she said. “It was a surreal experience to be there. I never thought I’d live to see it. It is crucial for people, especially young people, to be tested.”
Although a number of registry drives were organized beginning in 2000 for Kelin, it was ultimately a sister, Lisa Feinstein, who provided the life-saving donation. While the most likely matches are found first among immediate family members, then more distant relatives such as cousins, the next most likely match is within a person’s own ethnic group.
In Kelin’s case that was Ashkenazi Jews.
Those drives were organized by another of Kelin’s sisters, Judy Chanowitz of Highland Park, who also organized the current drive. Chanowitz said she was inspired while in Israel Jan. 21 on a Congregation Ahavas Achim mission. There she saw a long line of people waiting at a Tel Aviv shopping mall to be tested for a six-year-old girl suffering from leukemia. She later learned that more than 62,000 people volunteered to be donors at 85 testing stations.
“I’m especially excited about the March 15 drive because it is also my sister Lisa’s birthday, so the whole thing seems to dovetail very nicely,” she said.
At one of those 2000 drives at Rutgers Hillel, a student later matched with a 28-year-old Israeli women, also dying from leukemia, saving her life.
Another former Rutgers student tested at a Hillel drive successfully matched with a nine-year-old Connecticut leukemia victim, who also recovered.
A double match
Ilana and David Adams of East Brunswick know what it’s like to be in the position of being donors. About seven years ago they both agreed to be tested at Rutgers Hillel and would later have the almost unheard of experience of each matching with recipients.
While David acknowledged he agreed to be tested to impress the woman who would become his wife several years later, he doesn’t regret the decision.
“I’m an observant Orthodox Jew so I feel I earned some points with the guy up there,” said David, 29, manager of client services for a corporate law firm.
David donated stem cells to an older man about five months ago and expects to get an update shortly on his progress, although he does not yet know his identity. Donors and recipients may meet by mutual agreement after a year.
Ilana, a 26-year-old speech therapist for special needs children, got her call three or four years after being tested. She went through the necessary blood work and gave them her assurances she would go through with the procedure.
“I don’t honestly know why anyone would chicken out,” she added. “I’m not going to lie and say it’s completely painless, but I can honestly say if it means saving a life, why wouldn’t you? It’s the greatest mitzva you can do to save a life.”
Although the little boy she donated bone marrow to lived only another two years, Ilana said if given the opportunity to do it again, she would do so without hesitation.
“I absolutely did not feel it was a waste,” she said. “Even if it meant I gave that little boy an extra week, it was worth it. I would do it every year if they needed me.”
Those still interested in helping to defray costs of the screening, send checks to Judy Chanowitz, 153 North Eighth Ave., Highland Park, NJ. For more information, call 732-777-7999.
Teaming up for health care
St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick is teaming up with Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley to offer a health fair featuring medical screenings, workshops by medical personnel, and children’s activities.
The March 15 program will be held from 1-5 p.m. at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison.
The event will also feature testing conducted by HLA Registry for potential bone marrow donors and a blood drive by the American Red Cross.
“The community health committee at the hospital was interested in creating a joint project with the Highland Park/south Edison [Jewish] community,” said Dr. Susan Brill, director of adolescent medicine at St. Peter’s Children’s Hospital and an active Bikur Cholim member.
Among Bikur Cholim’s activities are visiting the sick in area hospitals and other facilities. It has several hundred members.
Brill has been helping to organize the fair, which is free and open to the entire community, since its early planning stages last summer.
She said the event would have screenings for blood glucose and pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and bone density provided by the hospital’s mobile health van.
“Ask the doctor” information tables will be staffed by hospital medical personnel with Brill herself available at the adolescent medicine table. Other tables will focus on such topics as immunization, sleep disorders, developmental pediatrics, rheumatology, and pediatric endocrinology and nutrition.
Workshops conducted by professionals and lasting 30 to 45 minutes each will run in a separate room throughout the fair. Brill will speak on teen stress while others will conduct sessions on memory training, weight control, children with ADD-ADHD, effective parenting strategies, chiropractic care, basic first aid, and vision care.
Activities to attract children at the fair include a fire safety exhibition, karate and balloon animal demonstrations, and finger-painting, Brill said. Edison police will be on hand with K-9 units, and youngsters should bring their bicycles and/or helmets because officers will also conduct bike safety checks.
For information, contact Cindy at 732-732-580-5055 or Brill at 732-266-1324.
— DEBRA RUBIN
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