By Kassie Kallner
IV Leader Opinion Editor. Oct. 4, 2007
What would you give for one more day with your best friend?
Lori Ulrich, IVCC nursing and criminal justice major knows what she would give to help save a life. It’s the same thing that helped her best friend spend a few extra months alive.
On April 10, 2006, Lisa Gerber, Ulrich’s best friend and co-worker at the Roanoke Ambulance Squad, was diagnosed with leukemia. “Lisa always had a smile on her face. She was so full of life, even after everything she had been through, and her leukemia wasn’t even the worst thing she went though.” Ulrich said.
On Nov. 8, 2005, Lisa and Byron Gerber lost their 6 month old boy, Micah, who suffered from spinal muscular atrophy.
After being diagnosed, Lisa started having blood transfusions. Chemotherapy followed the transfusions.
Then the process of finding a bone marrow donor began. Everyone in Gerber’s family was tested, but to no avail. Then they turned to the national registry.
The National Marrow Donor Program provides a registry of millions of potential bone marrow donors. Leukemia and lymphoma patients who cannot find a match within their family turn to the NMDP. For many patients, a transplant is their best hope to cure their disease. A match was found for Gerber. A male from Iowa City — that is all that is known about him — donated his bone marrow to Lisa.
“It was kind of funny; she was actually given a new birth certificate,” Ulrich said. “The doctor told her if she ever committed a crime, not to leave her fingerprints, leave her blood, because it would identify her as a male.”
Gerber spent a few months in Iowa City, and then returned home. She even went back to work. Then one day, while out on an ambulance call, she hurt her leg. After weeks of the wounds not healing, she went back to the doctor. That’s when the bad news came.
Lisa was not going to get better. She decided to stop treatment and spend her final days with her family and friends. On April 3, 2007, Lisa Gerber lost her fight to leukemia.
Ulrich remembers her friend with admiration. “She was one hell of a girl and I miss her everyday. What I don’t miss though, is all the pain she went though. But she never lost faith, she never once said why me, she never once was angry.”
Although the bone marrow transplant did not save her, Ulrich said that it did allow Lisa to have a few extra months to live, and a better quality of life during her final days.
Now, Ulrich and other members of the Roanoke Ambulance Squad will join the NMDP Registry when IVCC hosts the Blood and Bone Marrow Drive on Oct. 4 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the lower gym. IVCC has hosted this event for 10 years and has signed 603 people to the registry, but it is unknown how many have actually donated. The Student Nursing Association and Student Government Association provide $1,000 and a matching grant from the NMDP cover the costs normally charged to those who register.
Pam Mammano, assistant director of nursing, said that for those who are donating blood and registering on the bone marrow donations list, some blood obtained from the donation is sent to the NMDP. Those just wishing to join the registry have a mouth swab. For both, there is also a questionnaire.
Students who wish to participate but have not made an appointment can still go to the lower gym and see when appointments are available. Mammano also encourages those who cannot give to help by volunteering their time.
“One of SNA purposes is to be proactive in community services and provide health education. Bone marrow drives and blood donations are a very important way of helping others while at the same time educating about the importance of blood donation and organ donation,” Mammano said.
“People are scared of donating, but to register it’s just a cheek swab,” Ulrich said.
“Being a donor isn’t easy,” Ulrich admitted, “but if it could give someone just a few extra days of life…“Just think about losing your best friend, and what it would be like to spend one more day with them.”