By:Nick Buglione
More than 100 people turned out for a blood drive last Tuesday at St. Paul-s Greek Orthodox Church in Hempstead, the third attempt to find a bone marrow match for the sick third-grader. The first drive was held at the same church last year, for which 702 people showed up, followed by another at the East Meadow Fire Department-s headquarters that drew some 500.
For the Stauders, of East Meadow, it has been an emotionally exhausting year, though it has done nothing to dampen their resolve to keep searching. I want to quit my job so I can concentrate more on what we-re doing, said Tim Stauder, Kirsten-s father. My focus is harder.
Following blood work during a routine checkup in July 2003 and a visit to the Schneider Children-s Hospital, Kirsten was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia and her family was told she needed a bone marrow transplant to live. Their hopes soared in February, when a bone marrow match was found. Kirsten-s body, however, rejected the transplant in April.
The worst was the fear of knowing she would have to do it again, said Stauder, explaining that the procedure took an exacting physical toll on Kirsten. Prior to receiving a bone marrow transplant, a patient must undergo 10 days of intense chemotherapy, spending a total of seven weeks in the hospital, Stauder said. It wasn-t pleasant, he said. It just became a nightmare. It-s just rough.
Complicating matters, Kirsten recently spent 12 days back in the hospital, because the intravenous port through which she receives medicine was infected.
Her illness has had a dramatic impact on the family not only emotionally, but financially. The search for a bone marrow donor is a long and expensive one not always covered by health insurance, something the Stauders learned at the outset. We had to pay the hospital $8,000 up front just to start the initial search, Kirsten-s father said. What-s more, each bone marrow test costs $60, and once a match is found, the actual transplant procedure costs upward of $40,000.
You wouldn-t even want to know how much money we-ve had to spend, Stauder said. It-s drained us. I don-t know how people who get in this situation don-t go bankrupt.
Still, the community has done its best to help out, Stauder said. The East Meadow Kiwanis, through the efforts of Borrelli-s Restaurant and others, just donated $5,000 to the family, which it raised at its annual golf outing. I have young children, and you never want to have that kind of thing happen, said Mitchell Skoller, president of East Meadow Kiwanis. This is what we-re all about: Helping people. We would do the same thing for anybody else.
The East Meadow Chamber of Commerce, Fire Department and Little League have pitched in as well. Stauder said he has also received support from Holy Family, the private school his daughter attends in Hicksville, and Kellenberg High School, where his son is a student. It-s definitely helped us along, he said. We-re doing the best we can to ride it out.
After learning of the family-s plight, Merrick Kiwanis donated $10,000, which it received through a state grant secured by Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick), to the AHEPA Bone Marrow Registry. The Kiwanis club initiated a project a year ago aimed at encouraging people to participate in bone-marrow testing and registration. That is really the first step in helping people who are suffering, said Bernie Stein, Merrick Kiwanis member and project chairman. We have a former member whose wife had leukemia and was a bone-marrow recipient, and he educated the club about the need.
It will take about five weeks for the Stauders to find out whether a new match was discovered at the most recent drive. In the meantime, Kirsten, who enjoys dancing and hopes to one day become a teacher, still has a lot of fight left. She-s a very spirited child, her father said.
Donations to the Kirsten Stauder Medical Fund can be mailed to 2083 Hempstead Turnpike, Suite 178, East Meadow, NY 11554.
