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Photo by Brian Cox
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Milan High School teacher Jim Brousseau reviews material from the National Marrow Donor Program. Brousseau will donate bone marrow next month for a 27-year-old man he does not know.
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Milan High School teacher Jim Brousseau was entered into the National Marrow Donor Program database when he volunteered to donate bone marrow to a college friend diagnosed with leukemia. He was not a match, however, and his friend died from the disease.
Aside from an annual newsletter in his mailbox, Brousseau didn't hear from the donor program again until he got a call a week before Thanksgiving 13 years later.
Brousseau was in disbelief.
"My first thought was, 'You still have me on the list?'" he said. "You never think it's going to happen because it hasn't happened yet."
The donor program case manager told Brousseau he was a potential match for a 27-year-old man suffering from Myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease that affects the bone marrow and blood. Was he still willing to donate his bone marrow?
Brousseau didn't hesitate before saying yes.
"It really isn't something to think about," he said. "If you can, why wouldn't you? How can you say no to someone for whom this is a last chance?"
A medical technician came out to the school to draw Brousseau's blood for testing. A month passed. And then Brousseau got another call. He was the best match. It was a go. The process began to prepare Brousseau for a peripheral blood stem cell donation, which was originally scheduled for mid-March, but pushed back to later next month.
Brousseau will face five days of injections of a drug called Filgrastim, which moves stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood stream, where it can be harvested by drawing blood. After taking the drug, Brousseau will spend two days at the University of Michigan Hospital hooked up to a machine for 3 1/2 hours with a needle in each arm.
"It sounded a lot less painful than drilling into pelvic bone," Brousseau said of the peripheral blood stem cell donation.
Drilling into bone is still a possibility, though, if doctors elect not to use peripheral blood stem cell.
Brousseau is not overly concerned about the process.
"It's not going to affect me except for a couple days," he said.
His wife, Debra Brousseau, a music teacher at Estabrook Elementary School in Ypsilanti, had some questions about the side effects, though.
Brousseau said he might suffer headaches, bone or muscle pain, nausea and tiredness for a few days. Other less common side effects of Filgrastim include dizziness, skin rashes, eye swelling, and shortness of breath. He will miss some days at school as he recovers.
But he doesn't think much about that. He thinks about the man he might help -- a man of whom he knows nothing except his age.
"I was asked if I would be depressed if the guy doesn't make it," he said. "It's one of the reasons they don't want to give out too much information. I'm certainly hopeful it will be a positive outcome."
Brousseau said he could learn more about the man in a year.
"I'd like to know if he's doing OK," he said.
Now 45, Brousseau became good friends with Tim Bailey while attending college at Michigan State University. Bailey was diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. He had a wife and daughter. There was not a positive outcome then.
But for Brousseau this is a second chance. And it's for the same reason.
"I think it's our responsibility to help people who need it," he said.
For more information on bone marrow donation, visit www.marrow.org.
Staff Writer Brian Cox can be reached at 429-7380 or bcox@heritage.com.
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