Father turns to 9-year-old son for lifesaving stem cell donation
The question occurred at dinner towards the end of June.
Anesthesiologist Nick Mondek, 48, was dying of acute myeloid leukemia, cancer that affects blood cells in the bone marrow. It was a serious subject to approach with his 9 -year -old son, Stephen, when they ate pasta bowls.
But Mondek needed a stem cell donor – and fast. So he asked his son to save her life.
The youngster agreed to be tested at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to see if he could give stem cells to his father.
The fourth year student of Rolling Hills Country Day, who dreams of becoming a doctor for a major league baseball team, first had his own question: “When are we going?”
In July, Stephen became what the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center thinks that it is his youngest known stem cell donor.
“I just wanted to help,” said Stephen.
His gift does not only buy his father’s time, but offers the hope that Stephen’s stem cells build a more recent and stronger immune system that will help his father fight blood cancer.
“I wanted him to do this as his own decision,” said Mondek. “I didn’t want him to feel forced. I didn’t want him to feel as if he had to do. ”
Nick Mondek, a 48 -year -old anesthesiologist, was dying of acute myeloid leukemia, cancer that affects blood cells in the bone marrow and needed a rod to rebuild his immune system. Her 9 -year -old Stephen son intervened to help.
(Gracieuse of Cedars-Sinai)
The Mondek’s trip from the doctor to the patient started in April 2022.
The 45 -year -old man, an employee of Martin Luther King Jr. Ambulatory Center, felt constantly tired of appetite. Then one day, he couldn’t turn his head. Its rest at rest has gone from 60 standard beats per minute to a worrying, in a 100 BPM race.
“Being a typical stubborn doctor, I kept writing it,” he said. “I would take antibiotics, I would take ibuprofen, thinking that that’s it, thinking that that’s it, not even entertaining the fact that it could be cancer or even leukemia.”
Weeks of relentless symptoms have led Mondek to spend a simple complete blood count, or CBC, to test. He was hospitalized in the hours following the reception of the results.
Mondek first found help in his brother, whose donation of stem cells sent Mondk’s blood cancer in remission.
In April, however, leukemia returned.
“We have followed all the clinical protocols, but the disease still managed to return, so we had a new problem in our hands,” said Dr. Ronald Paquette, clinical director of the stem and bone marrow transplant program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, in a press release. “How could we treat his cancer a second time and have better chances that he does not come back?”
Paquette and Mondek looked for genetic matches but found none in his family or in the national bone marrow register.
Stephen Montek with his father, Nick; Mom, Danielle Boyer and brother, John.
(Gracieuse of Cedars-Sinai)
It was then that Mondek opted for a curve ball.
He recalled that a friend successfully fought lymphoma after receiving a stem cell transplant from his 18 -year -old son.
Paquette confirmed that Stephen, who had 10 years last month, was a possibility. Stephen was automatically a partial match since the children receive half of their DNA from each of their parents.
Other tests have revealed that Stephen’s immune system was compatible with that of his father.
Mondek’s next conversation with his son was even more difficult than the initial question of rescue. He had to explain the ins and outs of the preparation and the tax procedure.
A bandage covers Stephen Mondek’s neck where a central line catheter was inserted for the donation of stem cells.
(Gracieuse of Cedars-Sinai)
“Every day, I speak to patients for risks and advantages before their procedures,” said Mondek. “And of course, they are over 18 years old and they are adults, so that they can understand the advantages and disadvantages. So, how is it, how to speak to a 9 -year -old child?”
Mondek explained to his son that there would be several weeks of preparation before the donation which included plans and blood exams. Although his son had reservations, he was not concerned about anesthesia or procedures. He had a concern.
“I didn’t want to run out of time to play baseball,” said Stephen, a fan of Chicago Cubs and a receiver from the Little League Rolling Hills baseball team.
However, there were special considerations due to Stephen’s age. A normal donation of stem cells, for example, is generally a non -surgical procedure in which the blood is extracted from an arm through an IV.
Since Stephen’s veins are much smaller than that of an adult, the doctors had to find another entry point.
Stephen arrived on the day of his procedure at 7 am, he was placed in pediatric users, given general anesthesia, intubated and put on a fan before a central line (catheter) was inserted in his neck, according to his father.
Stephen was then extuated and awake, then he rested for an hour before his blood was drained and turned by a centrifuge for six hours to separate the stem cells.
“A gift from a child This young person is very rare,” said the intensive care pediatrician, Dr. Hoyoung Chung. “Stephen was very courageous, and our team made sure that everything was going perfectly so that this young boy could help his father.”
Stephen returned home the same day to his father, mother Danielle Boyer, and his younger brother, John.
His father’s recovery was not so fast.
Mondek was admitted on July 23 and spent six days in Cedars to receive chemotherapy to remove his immune system, which makes Stephen’s cells less likely to reject.
Mondek spent two additional weeks in the hospital to protect its emerging and vulnerable immune system.
Paquette told Mondek that although surgery has succeeded, it could take more than a year to determine whether its new immune system, powered by his son’s cells, could overcome leukemia. For the moment, he just had to wait.
On August 16, Mondek was finally released from the hospital.
He went directly to Stephen’s baseball match to take the last round of his son.
