Youth, 16, Waits for a Life-Saving Marrow Donor

As a kid, Jose Villegas Jr. always played the cop in games of cops and robbers with family members. He “arrested” his mother with toy handcuffs and put his older sister in “jail” beneath her bed.

A year ago, the 16-year-old proudly donned the blue and black uniform of an Explorer Police Scout in Monrovia. Despite the leukemia in his body--in remission, but ticking away like a time bomb--he volunteered countless hours filing papers at the police station, running errands and standing watch at parades.

But a week ago, the disease he has been battling for three years felled him again. Weak and nauseated from chemotherapy, Jose now lies in Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, waiting for a bone marrow transplant that could save his life.

Jose’s parents and older sister, Veronica, do not match. The search for a matching, unrelated donor is a long shot, a 1-in-20,000 chance, medical experts say.

But Jose’s 24 fellow Explorer Scouts and the 57 members of the Monrovia police force have launched an all-out search to find that donor.

On Monday, Monrovia Police Chief Joseph Santoro rolled up his shirt sleeve, took a blood test and encouraged others to have their blood tested Saturday at the San Gabriel Valley city’s community center. (For information, call the Monrovia Police Department at (818) 301-9061 or (818) 303-1081.)

Although more than 800,000 people are registered with the National Marrow Donor Program, none of them match Jose’s bone marrow type, said Jose’s physician, Dr. David Tishler of Pasadena.

Matches are determined by a combination of six proteins attached to white blood cells. But Jose’s combination is a rare one, Tishler said. If a match can be found, the youth’s chances of survival would increase to perhaps as high as 40% with the transplant.

Jose was determined to begin work on his police career. Despite bouts of nausea, he became a tireless worker at the Monrovia Police Station. On Jan. 14, he graduated from the Police Explorer Academy at Arcadia High School.

Jose’s plans are on hold as he struggles to regain strength. Tishler said the youth has not responded well to the chemotherapy, needed to bolster his body for the transplant.