An adopted American girl who was dying from bone marrow failure
but survived thanks to a transplant finally met her savior
Thursday.
Ten-year-old Kailee Wells presented to her bone marrow donor, a
tearful Wang Lin, a picture frame inscribed with the words: "You
are my hero. I will love you forever."
Wang swept Kailee up in a big hug when they met in Beijing at
the emotional event organized by the Red Cross Society of
China.
"To see her standing before me, I feel so moved, so happy," said
Wang, 30, a doctor from the eastern city of Hangzhou. "The fact
that we could be matched among this sea of people is a matter of
fate."
Kailee Wells, a 10-year-old
girl who survived aplastic anemia thanks to a successful bone
marrow transplant last year, holds a calendar presented to her by
donor Wang Lin (R), a doctor from a Zhejiang Hospital December 20,
2007.
The bespectacled Kailee, wearing a maroon dress with white lace,
stood shyly by and held Wang's hand.
Born in the central province of Hunan, the youngster was
abandoned as a baby on the steps of a training institute for
teachers in the city of Changde.
She spent a year in an orphanage the Wells family of
Albuquerque, New Mexico, adopted her.
Just after turning 5, she fell ill with aplastic anemia, in
which the bone marrow stops producing blood platelets and
red-and-white blood cells.
After a desperate and unsuccessful search on global marrow donor
bases, Kailee's mother, Linda Wells, came to China in 2003 in hope
of finding a match, preferably from a sibling.
But none was found.
In 2005, amid a donor pool that had expanded to about 300,000,
Wang - himself a father of a young son - was found to be a suitable
candidate.
After an unsuccessful transplant with cells that didn't match,
Kailee had her second in November 2005 with Wang's bone marrow -
but her blood count continued to decrease.
In February, she underwent her third transplant, which her
mother said was her last chance, and it was successful.
At Thursday's ceremony, Wang gave Kailee a calendar with photos
of his family.
When asked how she felt about meeting her benefactor, Kailee
said one word: "Pleasure."
Owen Wells, her father, told Wang he was "Kailee's special
daddy" as he shook hands with him.
Kailee and her family, who now live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, say
they will be spending Christmas in China and want to help recruit
more marrow donors.
They will also make a trip to Hunan to meet other orphans.
The number of China's bone marrow donors on the registry has
grown from tens of thousands in 2003 to 700,000 today, thanks to an
increased understanding of the procedure by ordinary Chinese
citizens.
"More people need to have basic knowledge of it. Now they feel
horror when they hear about marrow donation," said Hong Junling,
director of the Red Cross Society's blood and stem cell
program.
"They need to know there's no harm to their health."
Even with 700,000 potential donors, just 60 percent of people
who need a match will find one, Hong said.
Once the registry boasts between 2 million and 5 million people,
demand can be fully met, he said.
(Agencies via China Daily December 21, 2007)
