Thursday, October 1, 2026
Last year, Oceanside dentist Dr. David Solomon hosted a fundraiser at E.B. Elliot’s in Freeport. He was guest bartending, trying to raise funds for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.
Gift of Life works to grow the National Marrow Donor Program. People who participate simply get their cheek swabbed and are added to the registry. When a patient needs a marrow transplant, they are checked against names in the registry to see if there’s a compatible donor.
At Solomon’s fundraiser, many people who came to the bar had their cheeks swabbed, Solomon included. Then, in late June, Solomon received a phone call informing him that he was a potential match for someone.
“In fact, they called me on my birthday, and they said, ‘You might be a potential match. Please go to a local lab. They’ll draw your blood and we’ll analyze it and we’ll let you know if it works,’” Solomon recounted. “And then [at the end of July] weeks ago, they said, ‘We need you.’”
Solomon learned that he was a match for a woman suffering from acute leukemia. At first, Solomon thought that doctors would need to take his bone marrow, which generally means using a needle to suck marrow out of the donor’s hip, plus a few days of recovery. But the doctor’s didn’t need Solomon’s marrow — they needed his stem cells.
“So five days before my donation, I went into the hospital and they gave me two shots,” said Solomon. “And what they do is they tell your bone marrow to release stem cells into your blood stream. Then when I go, I sit on this machine. They put IVs in each arm and they take the blood out, they spin it and take the stem cells, and then they put the rest of your blood back in your other arm.”
Although he’s afraid of needles, Solomon was determined to donate. His wife, Leah, was suffering from the bone marrow disease Milo fibrosis. Her brother gave her the stem cell donation that saved her life.
Solomon took two days off for the procedure: Aug. 13 to actually do it and Aug. 14 as well because he wasn’t sure how he would be feeling. Solomon was tired the day after the procedure, but was back at work a day after that. He said the worst part of the procedure wasn’t even the needles: it was sitting in the chair for five hours.
“You couldn’t get out of the chair,” he said. “The only part that hurt me was my butt from sitting.”
The hospital staff brought him food, and there was a television in his room. Solomon also brought his laptop to watch movies. A courier was waiting to take the stem cells as soon as the procedure was done to the woman who was receiving the transplant.
And if he’s called upon again for another donation, Solomon said he would most likely do it.
“It was a minor inconvenience for hopefully saving this lady’s life,” he said.
