Woman Trying to Save Kin With Marrow Begins Fast

A woman who has been prevented from traveling to Israel to offer her bone marrow for a transplant needed by her cancer-stricken brother began a protest hunger strike here Saturday, her husband said.

Viktor Flerov, a physicist, said that his wife, Inessa Flerova, started on a water-only diet after an inconclusive meeting Saturday with R. A. Kuznetsov, head of the Soviet visa office.

Last Monday, Flerov said that Kuznetsov told him and his wife that there would be a decision this week on their emergency application for an exit visa that has been pending since last March 31.

On Saturday, however, Kuznetsov told the physicist that the issue would not be decided until Monday or Tuesday, he said in a telephone interview.

“She is afraid of other delays, so she started a hunger strike today,” Flerov said.

Her 31-year-old brother, Mikhail Shirman, has been told by Israeli doctors that only a successful bone-marrow transplant can prevent him from dying of leukemia in a matter of months.

Shirman emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel in 1980.

His sister is the only donor who might be able to provide matching bone marrow for the kind of last-chance operation that drew international attention following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, doctors have said. Shirman’s mother, now living in Israel, was tested as a possible donor. It was found that her marrow did not match his, however.

Even if Flerova is able to go to Israel, however, doctors estimated there is only a 25% chance that her marrow will be suitable for the needed transplant.

Dr. Robert P. Gale, the American doctor from Los Angeles who helped Soviet physicians with the unusual procedure, has interceded on behalf of the family with the Soviet Ministry of Health.

The 37-year-old Flerova, who is an economist with the Institute of Urban Construction, said officials at her workplace originally blocked her application for a visa to visit Israel. Later, she was told that her entire family would have to seek permission to emigrate if she wanted to offer bone marrow to help her brother.