Marrow Rejection Kills Leukemia Patient, 8

Brooke Ward, the young leukemia patient who received a bone marrow transplant two years ago, died in her father’s arms while on the way to a hospital, authorities said. She was 8 years old.

The surgery on Dec. 16, 1987, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, was the first such transplant for which a donor was found through the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

The little girl’s widely publicized struggle brought recognition to the registry, and its list of donor names increased from 23,000 to 40,000. Her doctor said her death Saturday was caused by graft-versus-host disease, a condition in which the body rejects transplanted tissue.

“They were really encouraged with Brooke since she had made it two years and had not relapsed,” said the child’s mother, Marguerite Ward. “It looked like just a matter of time and her body would accept the bone marrow.”

After a restless night, the girl’s father, Michael Ward, took her to the hospital but she died en route.