More than a miracle, a team effort, with unprecedented training. When a patient at the large metropolitan hospital of Reggio Calabria is found to be compatible with a bone marrow transplant, the carabinieri track down the donor.
Ten years ago, he expressed his willingness to donate marrow, often the only strategy to fight forms of leukemia and other onco-haematological pathologies. However, no trace of him had been lost and at the time no one was answering the contact numbers he had left. A nightmare for the patient who was counting on that transplant for a chance of recovery.
Finding a compatible donor is extremely difficult, even close family members are not necessarily compatible. According to statistics, there is only a 25% chance that a relative is compatible and just 1 in 100,000 among volunteers registered in global registries. This is why tracing that donor was essential for the doctors in the tissue typing departments and the transplant center. And in a tight time frame.
Faced with the urgency and the impossibility of contacting the donor, one of the biologists asked for help from a policeman friend. He was not on duty, but immediately got to work: the donor was then tracked down and contacted, confirming his willingness to start the procedures necessary for the transplant.
Reggio Calabria, a match for the marrow transplant has been found but the donor cannot be found: the police track him down
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2024/12/25/news/trapianti_si_trova_una_compatibilita_per_il_midollo_ma_il_donatore_e_irreperibile_lo_rintracciano_i_carabinieri-423906797/?rss