David Sczesny
Sixteen-year-old David Sczesny wanted to help save lives by donating blood with his father Gene at an American Red Cross Music Saves Lives blood drive being held at his favorite place to skateboard. That decision to help others by giving the gift of life may have saved his own.
“I wanted to donate blood to help save someone’s life,” said David. During his blood donation on June 24, David learned his red blood cell count was low, so he was unable to donate blood that day. The Red Cross staff person gave him an instruction sheet of dietary changes to make and told him to return in a month to try to donate again.
Disappointed by the news, David went home. He had been suffering from headaches and feeling dizzy lately, so his mom was concerned when she found out he was also anemic and took him to the doctor.
After some blood work and other tests, David was referred to a hematologist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Further blood tests that day revealed several abnormalities, so he was immediately admitted to the hospital.
“We found out that David has Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a bone marrow cancer,” said Mary Ochowicz-Sczesny, David’s mom. “If he hadn’t gone to donate blood that day, by the time his symptoms started to appear, his condition would have been life-threatening.”
David’s only treatment option for a possible cure is a bone marrow transplant. His father, mother and sister were all tested to see if they were a match. Unfortunately, all three were only half matches for David. During testing, they also found out that David had inherited a rare protein from Mary, making finding a match even more difficult.
Mary took the devastating cancer diagnosis and turned it into a positive. She worked with the American Red Cross and DKMS Americas to organize a bone marrow registration and blood drive. Within three and a half weeks, the drive was organized and special “David’s Donors” t-shirts, wristbands and water bottles had been made. During the drive, over 555 people signed up to join the National Bone Marrow Registry and 92 people donated blood through the Red Cross.
“We didn’t expect David’s bone marrow donor to walk through the doors that day, but we knew that we might be helping some other person waiting for a donor, somewhere in the world,” said Mary.
Two months passed without finding a suitable donor, so David’s doctor decided to use Mary as the bone marrow donor even though she was only a half-match. In preparation of becoming his donor, Mary went to the dentist and had her annual mammogram.
Four days later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and could no longer donate her bone marrow to David. “In trying to save David’s life, he ended up saving mine because my breast cancer was diagnosed early,” she said.
Meanwhile, David is still waiting for a bone marrow donor match – his only hope for a cure.