Nurse Races Against Time to Find Bone Marrow for Daughter

In a desperate race against her infant daughter’s impending death, a Ventura mother has begun a search for possible donors to provide the life-saving bone marrow Ana Laura Garcia needs to survive.

Mary Stewart, a nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, adopted Ana in December and found out in March that her daughter, now 7 months old, suffers from severe combined immunodeficiency disorders.

Ironically, Stewart, who was undergoing fertility treatment at the time, became pregnant on the day she adopted Ana.

“She (Ana) is a ‘bubble baby,’ ” said Stewart, 42. “She doesn’t have any protection against infection, so she can’t live unless she gets a new immune system.”

Without a bone-marrow transplant, which would provide that new immune system, Ana could die before her first birthday, her mother said.

Ana has been listed in the National Marrow Donor Program computer, and a list of 30 possible donors nationwide has been compiled. The potential donors are undergoing further testing to determine if their marrow is compatible with Ana’s, Stewart said.

A person’s family can provide a likely match, but Stewart said Ana’s birth mother cannot be found, nor can her siblings, who live in Mexico with their grandmother.

“We wanted to increase Ana’s chance for a match by testing people here,” Stewart said, so she and her hospital co-workers have organized a blood drive to search for a donor.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19, potential donors can have blood drawn in the hospital’s auditorium on the eighth floor.

“We’re hoping to have several hundred people tested,” said Stewart, manager of the hospital’s physiology department, which handles such procedures as cardiology and neurological testing and laser eye surgery. The odds of finding a match for any person needing a bone-marrow transplant are 1 in 20,000, Stewart said.

The testing is free for the donors. A series of fund-raisers at the hospital will raise the money to pay for the tests, which cost $55 each, Stewart said.

To be considered as a match, at least six of the donor’s white blood cell antigens must match the patient’s antigens. Each person has eight antigens, four from each parent, from a total body of 75 identified antigens that exist in the human antigen population pool.

If a donor is found, about a cup of his or her marrow would be drawn from the hip, processed and then transplanted into the patient, whose own bone marrow is eliminated either by chemotherapy or radiation, Stewart said.

Until a match is found for Ana, she remains in a sterile room at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, on medication to protect her antibody system and undergoing treatment to fight infections and viruses that have attacked her ears and respiratory system.

“She’s in a room by herself in a crib,” said Stewart, who is expecting a child in late August.

“She has teddy-bear mobiles hanging over her and has stuffed animals all over the room. Some days she feels good enough to play, some days she doesn’t,” said Stewart, who visits her daughter every Tuesday and Thursday, and on weekends.

Stewart had adopted Ana privately after a friend heard about the infant.

“She had heard of a baby up for adoption,” Stewart said. “She called the foster mother and set up a meeting. The birth mother was unable to care for the child and wanted her to have a good home, so she agreed to the adoption.”

Visiting Ana in the hospital can be hard. “On some days, it’s very hard to leave her. I’m crying and she’s crying. I know she can’t come home until she has the bone marrow transplant, but I want her with me.”