Leukemia Patient Meets Bone Marrow Donor Who Saved Her Life at Loyola

MAYWOOD, IL – Loyola Medicine patient Kristen Lucca, a 37-year-old single mother of two daughters, is alive today due to an extraordinary gift from a complete stranger.

Ms. Lucca underwent a successful bone marrow transplant to treat an aggressive form of leukemia. The life-saving marrow was donated by Lauriel Wright, 26, of Phoenix, AZ.

On Sept. 23, Ms. Lucca and Ms. Wright met for the first time during Loyola Medicine's annual Bone Marrow Transplant Celebration of Survivorship at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center.

"I don't know how I will ever be able to thank her," said Ms. Lucca, who lives in Gardner, Illinois. "I'm overwhelmed with gratitude."

In October, 2016, Ms. Lucca was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia after seeing a doctor for bruising on her legs and fatigue. She underwent three rounds of chemotherapy, but the cancer came back. In January 2018, she underwent a bone marrow transplant at Loyola.

Before the transplant, Ms. Lucca received high-dose chemotherapy, which succeeded in killing her cancer cells but also wiped out her immune system cells. To replace those cells, Ms. Lucca received an infusion of Ms. Wright's bone marrow cells, which developed into healthy new immune system cells. The new immune cells also attack any cancer cells that survived the chemotherapy.

Ms. Lucca is in complete remission and her prognosis is excellent, said Patrick Hagen, MD, who performed the bone marrow transplant.

Ms. Wright signed up to become a bone marrow donor after seeing a Be the Match® booth in a shopping mall. Be the Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program®, which manages the largest marrow registry in the world.

"I've always wanted to be part of something that was bigger than me," Ms. Wright said. "I wished and prayed that I would be a match for someone."

Thirteen months after signing up for Be the Match and giving a cheek swab, Ms. Wright received a call saying she matched a patient. Ms. Wright immediately agreed to donate. She went to a local hospital, where a large needle was used to withdraw marrow cells from the back of her pelvic bone.

Ms. Wright was sore for a few days and she had to take 10 days off of work because she became anemic. "But I would do it again a million times if it would save someone," she said.

Patrick Stiff, MD, Loyola's division director of hematology/oncology, said he is continually amazed that donors such as Ms. Wright are willing to go through a potentially painful procedure to save the life of someone they have never met.

"Despite all the technology we deploy, we still rely on the good intentions of donors," Dr. Stiff said.

Loyola operates one of the highest volume and most experienced bone marrow and stem cell transplant programs in Illinois. Loyola receives referrals from throughout the Midwest and offers a full spectrum of transplant options provided by an experienced, interdisciplinary transplant team. As an academic medical center, Loyola is able to offer patients access to clinical trials of promising new treatments not available at most centers.