{"id":4914,"date":"2019-03-27T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T15:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=4914"},"modified":"2019-05-13T10:10:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T14:10:02","slug":"he-was-only-young-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/he-was-only-young-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"He Was Only Young Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DNA\"<\/a>
Finding that matching DNA can save a life<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t easy. Acceptance never is. My children would grow up, marry. There would be grandchildren\u2026 And I wouldn\u2019t be there. A small grandchild would have a part in the school Chanukah play. \u201cInvite your grandmother, too,\u201d her teacher would say.\u00a0 My little granddaughter\u2019s face would cloud up,\u201d She\u2019s in heaven.\u00a0 She can\u2019t come.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n

So many tears. So many prayers whispered into my pillow. A bone marrow transplant<\/strong> could save my life but my family had all been tested and there was no match to be found. And so I tried to accept. My life would soon be over.<\/p>\n

All that changed when a young man \u2013 only a boy really \u2013 entered my life.<\/p>\n

\"pr<\/a>
A little bag of stem cells..a little bag of life!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My name is Shulamit and I am 51 years old. I have 5 children. I\u2019ve survived breast cancer<\/strong> twice. I thought I had paid my dues with medical issues for a lifetime but it seems that I was wrong. In 2015, I was diagnosed with leukemia<\/strong>. My doctors didn\u2019t think I could survive chemo<\/strong> a third time and felt that only a bone marrow transplant<\/strong> could save my life.\u00a0 That would be wonderful except that a bone marrow transplant<\/strong> requires a third party \u2013 a matching donor –\u00a0 and, in my case, there was none.<\/p>\n

I thought it was a long shot when they suggested trying Ezer Mizion. Even though I was told it was the largest Jewish<\/strong> registry in the world, still, if family members were not a match, how could a stranger be? Ezer Mizion is known for its miracles and Barak was one of them. He had just registered with Ezer Mizion six months ago when he joined the IDF. If he had been only half a year younger, it would not be me that would be writing these lines.<\/p>\n

Barak didn\u2019t hesitate and was ready to do whatever is needed in order to save my life but his mother was nervous.\u00a0 She had heard about bone marrow transplants<\/strong> and was understandably anxious about her son undergoing surgery. She calmed down when she realized that surgery is a rarity and most transplants<\/strong> are done via stem cells<\/strong> which are harvested from the donor much like a blood donation.<\/p>\n

\"pr<\/a>
Ezer Mizion, the largest Jewish registry in the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For legal reasons, the procedure is done anonymously. I couldn\u2019t wait to meet this mysterious angel. The meeting finally took place at the Registry and was extremely emotional. That goes without saying. How could meeting the one who saved your life be anything but emotional!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I couldn\u2019t believe how young he was! I told him that I consider him another son! I stood there and just stared. Because of this young man, a boy not yet out of his teens, I would be there as my children and grandchildren were growing up.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Barak and thank you, Ezer Mizion!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t easy. Acceptance never is. My children would grow up, marry. There would be grandchildren\u2026 And I wouldn\u2019t be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[756,1011,4,202,9,37,193,195],"class_list":["post-4914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bone-marrow-registry","tag-bone-marrow-transplant","tag-bone-marrow-transplants","tag-cancer","tag-chemo","tag-jewish","tag-leukemia","tag-stem-cells","tag-transplants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4956,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions\/4956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}