ABC’s Robin Roberts Urges You to Be a Bone Marrow Donor (Day 5 of 19 Days of Activism)

“In June of 2012, ABC’s Good Morning America anchor, Robin Roberts announced that she had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and her best treatment option was a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately her sister Sally-Ann was a perfect match and became her marrow donor. More than 70% of patients will not have a match in their family. They depend on the Be The Match Registry® to find that match — someone like you.

As a Be The Match Ambassador of Hope, Robin is asking others to join the Be The Match Registry as a potential marrow donor. Together we can help eliminate blood cancer.”   Click here for more information

Also, sign the petition to save 10 year old Ariana-Leilani, who needs life saving medicine to cause her bone marrow to produce enough neutrophils:

Related articles

• Be The Match: African-Americans Desperately Need More Bone-Marrow Donors (atlantablackstar.com)
• Are you ready for Ek-tober? (makemestronger.com)
• 9 y.o. girl needs bone marrow transplant (wxyz.com)
• Robin Roberts Heals With Adult Stem Cells, Bone Marrow Transplant (repairstemcell.wordpress.com)
• Life Blood (marthaschaefer.com)
• ABC’s Robin Roberts Marks One-Year Bone Marrow Transplant Anniversary with a “Birthday Wish” for More Bone Marrow Donors (sacbee.com)

What oncology nurses need to know about managing risk infection

Ariana-Leilani needs your support to get well.

Laura Zitella, a nurse practitioner in the division of oncology at Stanford Hospital and Clinics in California recently spoke at the 38th Annual Oncology Nursing Society Congress, on the best practices in infection risk, prevention and management.

She points out that “the depth and breadth of neutropenia correlate with the risk of infection. So there are very solid guidelines for the prevention of neutropenic-related infections, using interventions such as growth factors.”

“I think that now that we have so much more information about the risks for infection and what we can do to prevent them, the recommendations are very specific—and so it’s important to know your patient; know what patient-related risk factors they have, like comorbidities; the disease-related risk factors (solid tumor vs lymphoma or leukemia); and the treatment-related risk factors, which would be the myelosuppressive nature of the chemotherapy, or the immunosuppressive effects of the therapy, or bone marrow transplant.”

“In the bone marrow transplant (BMT) setting, there’s a really nice set of guidelines that was published in 2009, and that was a compilation, a consensus of guidelines, from American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and the Canadian Infectious Disease Society, and a number of other organizations, and that is extremely comprehensive. It covers just about every known pathogen that can affect bone marrow transplant patients. Other useful guidelines would be the IDSA febrile neutropenia guidelines, which were published in 2011; and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis and febrile neutropenia in outpatients, which was just published a few months ago; and there are also guidelines for the prevention of central line infections, which is also a significant issue in our patient population.”

Ariana-Leilani is severely neutropenic, but is not receiving GCSF to help prevent infection.

Sign the petition to urge that she get the medical treatment she requires:

Read More: ONS: Infection

Robin Roberts Return to GMA

Robin Roberts Returns to GMA

Five months after a bone marrow transplant to treat a rare blood disorder, Robin Roberts resumed duties as co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday morning, saying “I have been waiting 174 days to say this: ‘Good Morning America.'”

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– Ariana-Leilani Needs Urgent Medical Help

ABC Robin Roberts BMA Test Show No Abnormalities After Treatment

Robin Roberts announced plans to return to the show. Roberts announced that her most recent Bone Marrow Aspirations (BMA) tests following the bone marrow transplant she underwent in September, showed no abnormalities, meaning she can begin the process of returning to “GMA.”

Roberts underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS, a rare blood disorder that affects the bone marrow. Roberts first announced her diagnosis on “GMA” in June and has been on medical leave from “GMA” since Aug. 30.

Ariana-Leilani also has a rare blood disorder with abnormalities in her BMA tests, but she is being denied treatment for Severe Chronic Neutropenia.

Related articles

• Campaign to Save Ariana-Leilani Press Conference
• PressTV Coverage of Ariana-Leilani Being Denied Proper Treatment In US In Violation of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Robin Roberts Returns To GMA (jaybotogo.wordpress.com)
• Robin Roberts Visits ‘GMA’ Set, Prepping For Return (atlantablackstar.com)
• Robin Roberts — Testing the Water for ‘GMA’ Return (tmz.com)
• Georgetown University Hospital Has History of CIA Experimenting on Patients 

E. Donnall Thomas, Nobel winner for bone-marrow transplant advances dies

Nobel Laureate Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, whose groundbreaking work in bone-marrow transplants launched Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, died Saturday. He was 92 and had been suffering from cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Thomas pioneered bone-marrow transplantation, a lifesaving procedure for people with leukemia and other cancers of the blood. It and its sister therapy, blood stem-cell transplantation, work by destroying a patient’s diseased bone marrow with near-lethal doses of radiation and/or chemotherapy, then transplanting healthy marrow.

In honor of Dr. Thomas, please sign the petition to save Ariana-Leilani

• CNN Hero Betty Makoni Takes On the Cause of Getting Ariana-Leilani Life Saving Medicine and Evaluation (arianaleilani.wordpress.com)
• Ariana-Leilani’s Mother Speaks Out to Save Her Daughter (arianaleilani.wordpress.com)
• “Children Fall though cracks in Ward 3″,  about Ariana-Leilani (B. Hollingsworth, Washington Examiner, March 2011)
• Case that Fell through the Cracks Rises Internationally, about Ariana-Leilani (D. Carlin, MA; Honolulu Examiner Article:  January  2012)

12 Year Old Talia Castaellano Inspires the Gift of LIfe

12-year-old Talia Castellano’s personality inspires people to give the gift of life as she battles a form of cancer called neuroblastoma for the fourth time.

(click to sign the petition)

Robin Roberts Unexpectedly Leaves Good Morning America Even Though Looking Great

As with Severe Chronic Neutropenia, even though Good Morning America’s (GMA’s) Robin Roberts has a serious life threatening an immune disorder, she looks healthy.  Like Ariana-Leilani, her healthy looking outside does not tell the true story of the seriousness of her condition.   Thus, she abruptly told her loyal audience yesterday that she was going to leave GMA earlier than expected  to take care of her serious condition that requires a bone marrow transplant.   We wish her the best, and a speedy recovery.

Both Robin Roberts and Ariana-Leilani suffer from the  same class of rare blood and bone marrow disease.   While Robin Roberts is receiving proper treatment, Ariana-Leilani is not.  We hope the publicity surrounding Robin Roberts condition will reinforce the need for Ariana-Leilani to get life saving medicine and medical treatment she needs to stay alive.   Sign her petition today:

(click to sign the petition)

 

“Though she said she was feeling ill, the long-time host looked spectacular just a day before in a knee-length orange Michael Kors dress, pumps by Jimmy Choo, and jewellery by John Hardy.”