Girl owes life to bone-marrow transplant

Press, 8 November 1980, Page 1

Girl owes life to bone-marrow transplant

By

JOHN BROWN

Susan Watson, aged 20, was the victim of acute leukemia. Now, 83 days after a bone-marrow she is “itch’ing” to return to work. “If: I hadn’t had the transplant I would be dead now/ Susan. Watson skid yesterday as she recounted of the last Now recovering success?, fully * from bone-marrow transplant surgery per-' a at Christchurch I on August 16, been given a-good cnance of complete re“W events which brought her face to fate with death began in het

home .town, Nelson, at Labour Day week-end last year. A routine visit to a doctor for treatment of a cold, led,to tests for suspected anaemia. Bone-mar-row ; tests followed, and these showed that she had acute leukemia. . “I was so. scared when the doctor told me. I just screamed out ;for Mum. I ta <™- »h« u ' The eldest'of a family: of four girls, Susan is the daughter -of a Nelson . motor mechanic, Mr Richard Watson, and his wife, Julie.'' ■ \ ' Sent to' Christchurch » Hospital immediately after . her diagnosis, Susan Wat-

son was given an intensive course of chemotherapy and put in isolation in a sterile area for several weeks. “Everything went fine. I went into a period of remission and was allowed to go back to Nelson,” she said yesterday. Regular visits to Nelson Hospital for Blood tests lasted until May 29. Then the tests showed that leukemia was gaining the upper hand. Blood tests were ..done on all her family and the results sent to Dr Michael Behrd a haematoldgist at Christchurch Hospital.. Dr Beard': suggested to Susan that; >he should

consider having a bonemarrow transplant. "I had a choice. He told me straight. Either I went back on to the drug treatment and die in two months or consider the transplant, which could'

also prove fatal if my body rejected it.” Once she made the decision to have the transplant, the team of doctors led by Mr Beard and the nursing group led by Charge Nurse Jane Watson (no relation) began work. First they had to reduce

the influence of the leukemia through more drug i treatment and test her family for a donor. Her sister, Sandra, aged 16, i was chosen. Susan was given six days of total body radi-

ation to destroy her bone marrow. At the end of this time bone marrow was taken from Sandra and transferred to Susan ’in much the same manner as a blood transfusion. Discharged from hospital six weeks later she remained in Christchurch for regular tests to gauge

the success of the transplant. She also had further drug treatment. D Day for Susan is 100 days after the transplant. “That is November 24 — I have got a big ring around that. I know that if everything stays okay until then I’ve got a very good chance,” she said. Susan is adamant that the bone-marrow transplant work at Christchurch Hospital should be given more Government finance so that it can become a national unit. “If they do not get a national unit here a lot of people are going to die, especially now that no transplants are being done anywhere else in New Zealand,” she said.

Dr Beard said yesterday that five bone-marrow transplants had been done by his team since April last year. These were on a girl, aged eight, from South Canterbury; a Dunedin boy, aged 15; a boy, aged 14, from near Blenheim; and a North Island man. All the transplants, including that on Susan Watson, seemed to have been successful. “Susan is the first person who was wanted to make a public statement about the whole thing,” Dr Beard said. “We: are very hopeful about her case but there is still some time to go yet before we can be absolutely definite of success. We are certainly pretty sure about

some of the earlier cases, as it is very , rare to have a relapse after 18 months,” Dr Beard said. Dr Beard agreed with the stand being taken by the North Canterbury Hospital board to get more Government finance to extend the work of the Christchurch bone-marrow transplant team so that it could become a national unit.

“Pressure has been put on the government since 1977. Now Auckland is out of the scene we were hoping for a decision but none seems to be in sight,” Dr Beard said. “It is.clearly impossible for one board to bear the total costs of this urgently needed service.”