Donor Organization for Bone Marrow Grafts to Disband : Health: Covina-based group says it will dissolve to benefit recruitment for transplants. It had split from national program, which will now take over.

A Covina-based bone marrow donor organization, short on donations since a bitter split with a national donor program, announced Monday it is disbanding for the greater good of national donor recruitment and registration efforts.

Dr. Rudolf Brutoco, founder of Life-Savers Foundation of America, said his organization’s highly publicized break with the federally funded National Marrow Donor Program had caused “some concern and confusion” among potential donors.

Life-Savers broke away from the federal program last June, citing philosophical differences, and set up its own registry to match donors and patients in need of marrow transplants.

Since the break, Life-Savers has been unable to recruit as many donors and raise as much money as it did before the split, officials acknowledged Monday. The organization has been recruiting 3,500 donors a month, compared to the 5,000 to 10,000 it drew each month at its peak as part of the national program.

Officials attributed the dip in figures to confusion over which organization to consult about marrow donations. In addition, they said, the dispute may have further discouraged contact with the groups.

“That was unfortunate. . . . We don’t want to detract from the movement with any disagreements,” Brutoco said. “We think that one organization is better than two at this juncture.”

As part of an agreement to dismantle Life-Savers, Brutoco and two other officials of the organization will sit on the national program’s board of directors as unpaid members. All 25 Life-Savers employees will lose their jobs.

Elizabeth Quam, spokeswoman for the National Marrow Donor Program, said disbanding Life-Savers would simplify the painstaking and complicated process of searching for donors. “The top issue, really, was a sincere desire to make it easier for families, not just in this country but worldwide,” she said.

Both sides also agreed to drop lawsuits filed after their separation. The suits concerned use of donor information collected before Life-Savers broke away.

The National Marrow Donor Program will be allowed to use the Life-Savers name to attract donors and raise money--a significant stipulation because Life-Savers is recognized worldwide for its efforts to publicize the plight of patients in need of marrow transplants. Life-Savers is credited with recruiting 110,000 potential donors since it was founded in 1988.

The dissolution of Life-Savers comes as federal inspectors prepare the findings of an audit, examining charges that Life-Savers withheld information about potential marrow donors from the national program. Families of patients also accused Life-Savers of refusing to fully account for funds set aside for testing potential donors. Life-Savers officials have denied any wrongdoing.

National registry officials say they plan to adopt a number of Life-Savers’ fund-raising tactics, but will limit use of patients’ families in donor recruitment, a practice for which Life-Savers had been criticized.