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Mariella Rueda traveled to Washington D.C. this week to for a six-hour procedure to transplant her white blood cells to an acute leukemia patient. Her sacrifice could save his life.
Mariella Rueda has been a resident of Washington Heights for more than a decade. She has raised her twelve year-old baseball fanatic son here, and has developed a professional career in local government of which she is proud.
Last week, she left from New York to board a plane to a hospital in Washington D.C., for a mission that began ten years ago, although she had no idea of it then.
“Pack lightly,” she reminded herself as she prepared her baggage.
Rueda, a legislative assistant in New York State Assemblymember Herman ‘Denny’ Farrell’s office, this would not be an ordinary politics-related trip to the nation’s capital.
Instead, her trip could very well make the difference between living and dying, and was motivated by the simple impulse to do a good deed, over ten years ago.
Before leaving, Rueda, true to her nature, was hard at work in Washington Heights helping to dispense flu shots to residents at the Hebrew Tabernacle.
Dressed in a blazer and jeans, Rueda radiates a warm demeanor. She has a bright smile and wide eyes that flicker with excitement when she talks about her son. Her hair, pin-straight and black, is gathered in a neat ponytail.
As she explains, ten years ago, during a brief stay in Florida, Rueda walked into a blood donation center.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” she reflected. “I had no real intentions; I just thought that donating blood would be doing a good deed.”
Then this past June, Rueda received a phone call that would bring her back to the blood bank she visited a decade ago.
That donation of a decade’s time could today save a man’s life.
“I had to stop for a moment, to [try to] remember the time [of] that donation,” she said. “At the other end of the phone line, they said, ‘We have a patient. He needs your white blood cells and you’re a perfect match. Are you willing to come in for additional testing?’”
For a moment, Rueda was not altogether sure she remembered having given blood.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “It’s been ten years.”
Rueda hesitated. The prospect at first of having to subject herself to rigorous medical testing and medicine gave her pause. She thought of her son. And she also remembered her childhood friend Yahaira, who lost her battle to leukemia two years ago.
“I told myself, I’m a mother now. ‘What if anything ever happens to my son,’” she asked herself. “I would only hope that someone out there is a match if we needed one.”
With that, she agreed to undergo a preliminary battery of medical tests that did determine that her white blood cells could save a leukemia patient’s life.
But not much is known about the man who received Rueda’s white blood cell donation this past Thursday.
Due to privacy laws, Mariella has not met the recipient of her donation, nor has she spoken to him. All she knows is that the 28-year-old male is suffering from acute leukemia, and that he has been in remission twice. Chemotherapy is no longer an option and receiving a transplant of white blood cells is one of his last resorts.
“This is his last chance,” said Rueda.
On Thursday afternoon in D.C., she sat through a “peripheral blood stem cell transplant,” a six-hour procedure where white blood cells, responsible for defending the body against infectious disease, are separated through a filtering machine and stored for transplant. “He will have the blood within 24 hours,” explained Rueda.
Raising awareness and letting people know how important it is to become a donor is part of Rueda’s main goal. Ten years ago, when she was driven to donate, she never considered she’d be a match for anyone.
Today, her greatest desire is that more people will take the chance to also become a hope-givers.
“I’d really like for people to realize that becoming a donor is simple, they too can swab and donate their blood; they never know if they will be saving someone’s life,” said Rueda.
On Friday Rueda made her way back to Washington Heights.
Tired, feeling weak, and a bit exhausted, she said the procedure could not have gone any better.
“It’s incredible the way this happened. This was meant to happen, and I feel like a new person,” she reflected.
The recovery period could last anywhere from a couple of days to two weeks as her white blood cells reproduce and restore her strength. For now, she says she’ll be focusing on the spiritual aspect of her experience and hoping that it inspires others, while she waits to hear how the patient reacted to the transplant.
“I know he received the transplant within hours, and in a month’s time, we’ll know for sure how he’s reacting. It will take about a year to know if it was completely successful,” she said.
Rueda is recuperating but happy. “I’m glad I was able to help. This is for Yahaira [Rueda’s childhood friend], and for people to be aware of their potential.”
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