Widow Seeks to Aid Hunt for Bone-Marrow Donors

The search for a bone-marrow donor for Peter Lundquist dragged on for months. It was more time than he had.

Lundquist, 37, a Miami television news anchor and father of three, died of lymphoma in February, a week after potential donors were found.

His wife, Bonnie, said that administrative delays robbed her husband of precious time.

Lundquist wanted others to have the chance that eluded him. Before he died, he extracted some “pretty stringent” promises from her: to help other patients and work to improve the system.

“Peter was a really giving person who cared about other people,” Lundquist said in a telephone interview. “He left those good qualities: I tried to step in where he had to leave off.”

She promotes the idea of marrow donation, because “patients have no other options: It’s the only system we have right now.”

She wants lawmakers and the public to know that:

* The bureaucracy of donor matching is too slow. Lundquist was working through a transplant center; in August, his doctor asked the center to authorize a search via the nation’s largest donor bank. That search wasn’t begun until November and later there were delays in the tissue-matching process.

“You don’t have an extra day or month with cancer or leukemia patients,” she said.

* The medical Establishment doesn’t tell patients about all their options. A month after starting the search through the National Marrow Donor Program, she heard from another patient’s family about the American Assn. of Bone Marrow Registries and immediately started a search in the second registry.

* A patient’s family needs to keep constant tabs on the progress of a donor search. Lundquist said she called the transplant center weekly for updates; the National Marrow Donor Center doesn’t take calls from patients.

* Families, already under stress because of a loved one’s life-threatening illness, often must resort to public appeals to find a donor. They might not have to do so if more potential donors could be found.

“I’m concerned because it isn’t a cohesive system, because it’s too much of a burden” on patients’ families, she said. “I’m concerned that lives are being lost because of an inadequate system.”

Eventually, she said, “each and every one of us will be faced with a cancer or leukemia situation--a brother, sister, friend, father, co-worker, somebody you know will be affected.”

Bonnie Lundquist, a former broadcast journalist, now lives in Ft. Lauderdale and works as an aide to a state legislator. She said she hopes to start a foundation to help people who need transplants.

In the meantime, she gives advice and emotional support to patients and their families.

“Remembering my situation doesn’t paralyze me. It makes me empathize and sympathize with them,” she said, “but it’s hard, because I realize the frustrations they feel. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it go away and have all the answers for them.

“For me to become bitter now would not help other people. I’ve become a lot more positive and motivated to make some good out of it--not to become bitter and vengeful,” she said.

“Each day is a precious day.”