A Gift to Save a Life

By Sarah Baker
Communications Coordinator, Northwest University

This holiday season, Brooke Lundquist gave an unusual gift. It cost her time, as well as pain and discomfort. And the gift was to a complete stranger. It was a potentially life-saving gift of her bone marrow.

A few weeks ago, Brooke, who is the Internship Coordinator for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a 2007 graduate of Northwest University’s Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program, found out that she was a potential bone marrow match for a woman who is fighting acute leukemia. She didn’t hesitate to agree to proceed with the tests. Years before, she had seen the life-saving potential of this procedure for someone close to her—a little girl named Lexi.

Brooke registered as a bone marrow donor nine years ago. She registered in honor of Lexi who lived next door to Brooke and her family while Brooke was in high school. Lexi had leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her older brother, then seven years old. Lexi recovered and is now 14 years old. For a story from The Seattle Times about Lexi’s influence on Brooke’s decision to be a donor, click here.

All Brooke knows about the recipient of her bone marrow is that she is a woman in her sixties who has acute leukemia, which means that without the marrow transplant, she has no chance of survival. Brooke’s donation increases her chance of survival to 40 percent.

After a half dozen appointments and exams, Brooke was ready for the procedure. It was scheduled for Dec. 20, which allowed her to recover during the week-and-a-half Christmas break at Northwest University. “I was blessed to be able to have that time off!” she says.

During the surgery, doctors made four small incisions on her hips which allowed them to tap the bone marrow from four hundred places on her bones. They removed five cups of bone marrow fluid, which is approximately one third of her body’s supply.

After the surgery, Brooke went home to rest. She experienced considerable pain and weakness at first as she healed from the surgery and her body replaced the lost bone marrow. By the end of the second week, though, she was back to most of her usual activities with the aid of Tylenol for the remaining pain and bruises.

“It changed the holiday season for me,” Brooke says about the experience. “It is really easy to get caught up in the materialism. The season is really about giving. The reason we celebrate Christmas is because Christ came to save us and give us the ultimate gift. Passing His love on to others is what we are here for.”

Even though she has never met the woman who received her donation, Brooke says she feels a special connection with her. “I think about her all the time,” she says. “She is on my mind and in my prayers. I so want her to survive, but I know that she is in God’s hands.”

The woman received the donated marrow within 24 hours of Brooke’s surgery. It will take a few weeks for the doctors to determine whether the woman’s body received the transplant, and she will be at risk of relapse for the next year. If all goes well, Brooke may be able to meet her next holiday season.

Meanwhile, Brooke sees her experience as an opportunity to help many more people. “The process has reignited the flame in me to inspire people to help others,” she says. “It has become part of my mission to help others understand how to register to become bone marrow donors.”

For more information about registering as a bone marrow donor, visit www.marrow.org.