A 10-year-old girl in Pennsylvania is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant — and her mother is on a mission to find the perfect match. Doctors discussed the urgent case.
A 10-year-old girl in Pennsylvania is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant — and her mother is on a mission to find the perfect match. Lani Walter suffers from a disease called DOCK8 deficiency , an immunodeficiency syndrome that can cause recurrent, life-threatening infections. DOCK8 is very rare, with only 250 people worldwide currently diagnosed, statistics show. The only cure for DOCK8 is a bone marrow transplant — also known as a hematopoietic stem cell transplant .
Ashleigh Walter, a kindergarten teacher, is pleading for people to join the bone marrow/blood stem cell registry to help her daughter find a donor by summer. 'Time is of the essence,' she told Fox News Digital. Search for answers Walter’s daughter was diagnosed with DOCK8 when she was 7½ years old, the culmination of a long series of symptoms and illnesses. 'Lani’s health issues started at just a couple of months old,' Walter told Fox News Digital during an interview.
To help manage her condition, Walter’s daughter has been getting weekly intravenous immune globulin infusions, which add human antibodies to help fight off infections. She also takes daily antibiotics to help prevent pneumonia, uses an inhaler to help her respiratory system and takes other medications to treat different illnesses she experiences as a result of her DOCK8 deficiency.
The overall chance of finding a match in the world is 1/3 to 2/3,' Siegel said. The National Marrow Donor Program maintains a registry of people who are willing to donate. The Walter family found a 90% match on the registry, but the optimal situation would be to find a 100% match. 'There's much less risk with the bone marrow transplant if you can find that perfect match,' Walter told Fox News Digital.
She won't have an immune deficiency anymore,' she said. 'She'll adopt the immune system of the donor, and we won't have to worry about any of those increased risks at all.' Walter is hopeful that her daughter — whom she describes as 'a little kid at heart' — will soon be healthy and able to return to the activities she loves, including swimming. 'Lani has been on a swim team since kindergarten, and this will be her first summer not doing it,' Walter said.
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