Military SpouseResidency Relief Act The DNA sample for bone marrow matching is done via a pair of swabs taken from inside the mouth. Here, Hospital Corpsman First Class Richie Luna does just that for Fireman Jodie Mooney aboard USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7).

At the same time, Pax River saw one of its highest totals in last Wednesday’s Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP). Eighty-nine blood donors went to the Rear Adm. William A. Moffett Building atrium Wednesday, yielding 69 pints of blood to ASBP.

‘‘We had a great turnout with so much enthusiasm among our blood collection volunteers and our committed blood donors who were integral to this program,” said Pax River Naval Health Clinic Commanding Officer Linda Ireland. ‘‘Each unit collected is literally giving a gift of life and could help save multiple lives when extracted into different blood components.”

According to Ireland, ‘‘Every minute of every day, someone needs blood and the need for blood is constant. Today the program must maintain 65,000 units of frozen blood and 5,000 units of liquid cells at all times in order to meet readiness requirement as there is no substitute for human blood. Our motivated blood collection volunteers continuously encourage maximum participation in this life saving event,” which is held in conjunction with the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

This year’s Bone Marrow Registry event was ‘‘exceptionally successful,” Ireland said, praising drive coordinator Melanie Larijani and team leaders Chief Hospital Corpsman Lesley Dorsey, Hospital Corpsman First Class Timothy Alburg, and Carrie Jackson.

‘‘We are not only overwhelmed by the response from our Navy community and the incredible turnout, but also by the continuous efforts to aggressively promote and seek volunteers to participate in this life saving program for our leukemia patients in need of bone marrow transplant,” said Ireland. ‘‘Our goal was to work as hard as we could as a team to give these patients a second chance at life.”

Larijani, who is the clinic’s risk manager, noted that bone marrow is much more difficult to match than blood. ‘‘Unlike blood, which only has to match by type and RH factor, bone marrow needs to be a DNA match, so it’s much harder,” she said. ‘‘A bone marrow transplant is a life-saving treatment for many people with leukemia — and it may be the only hope for a patient.”

The Bone Marrow Registry drive began with a suggestion made during a meeting of the clinic’s Diversity Committee, according to Larijani. ‘‘We aggressively promoted it across the command here and at the branch clinics. There were tables set up each day from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and fliers were posted.”

After a prospector donor signs a consent form, two swabs are taken from inside the donor’s mouth for testing. ‘‘We match the bone marrow from those swabs,” Larijani said.

She added that the registry is important because of the Navy’s diverse population. ‘‘It’s much more difficult to find a bone marrow match because of diversity. The probability of a Caucasian American’s bone marrow matching an African American patient is less than one half of one percent.”

Every hospital and Navy ship has access to the database. If a match is found for a patient, ‘‘We will do anything to facilitate it,” Larijani said. ‘‘We fly the person to where the bone marrow is needed.”

All of this operates through the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Center in Washington, D.C., and the Navy’s Bone Marrow Registry Directorate at the Naval Medical Research Center. Eligible volunteers include all active duty military members and their dependents, DoD civilians, Coast Guard, National Guard and Reservists, ages 18-60 in good health. They work in conjunction with the National Marrow Donor Program in Minneapolis, Minn., which coordinates with over 200 participating organizations.

Contrary to popular belief, the donation process is not painful. ‘‘The donor will go under general anesthesia to donate,” she stated, ‘‘and will feel soreness in the hip area for 5-6 days.”

Larijani continued, ‘‘Many people are scared of even a needle, but if I could take them to a children’s hospital’s cancer center and they could see they are the only hope for those children, I think everyone would bear the soreness.”

The educational and awareness aspect of the event was especially important, Ireland maintained. ‘‘Awareness was a big key to the success of our drive and made our drive bigger than we ever hoped for,” she stated. ‘‘We provided educational awareness across the board in our Navy Community that a bone marrow transplant is a life-changing treatment for many people with leukemia and may be a patient's only hope for a cure — especially patients from racially and ethnically diverse communities.”

She concluded, ‘‘The growing diversity of U.S. Navy work force helps us meet the needs of patients from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The outpouring of support from our Navy family was tremendous.”