Be a life saver

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Kenneth Gilbert
  • 47th Flying Training Wing public affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  A Laughlin instructor pilot has made it her mission to save two friends lives. Capt. Kirsten Ellis took it upon herself to organize a bone marrow drive after personally seeing the effects of waiting for a viable marrow donor.

"Two of my closest friends have family members diagnosed with leukemia and are waiting for bone marrow transplants. Watching them as well as their families go through something like that really makes you want to help any way you can," she said.

Captain Ellis started this event for Laughlin in 2009 after attending a blood drive and identifying the need for more community awareness on the matter. After successfully signing 83 potential donors to the registry in 2009, hopes were high to bring in over 100 newcomers this year.

"Laughlin has a huge turnover rate which gives us a unique opportunity to educate a lot of new people every few months," said Captain Ellis.

Setting up the event was surprisingly easy for Captain Ellis. A quick call to Jon Hudson of the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center set the wheels in motion.

"Mr. Hudson was super helpful and came out the week prior in order to train some lieutenant's on how to register people," Captain Ellis said.

Their efforts resulted in a turnout of 121 potential donors being added this year, the most gathered in Sept. for the STBTC.

Even though her event was successful in adding to the marrow registry, there is more that can be done. Misinformation seems to be the main reason why more people don't volunteer, Captain Ellis explained.

"Most people do not want to register because they hear it is extremely painful to donate bone marrow. The fact is that 80 percent of the time they do not go through the hip to extract bone marrow," she said.

The most common method is similar to donating blood platelets, which involves drawing blood from one arm and cycling it back in the other. Captain Ellis said she is looking forward to future marrow registration drives at Laughlin. She is beginning to plan another event for next spring.

To find out more about the bone marrow donor registration process visit the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center website at http://www.southtexasblood.org/index.asp.