When Cheryl Scharf's son Nick was 6 months old, she repeatedly told her pediatrician he was always sick.
The physician dismissed her concerns, but luckily, her cousin, who was a liver transplant nurse, knew that something was terribly wrong. She told Cheryl to take her son to UCSF Children's Hospital. He was admitted the same day.
Diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID), Nick received a bone marrow transplant that saved his life in July 1988. Today, he's a healthy teen. Sporting a San Francisco Giants baseball cap, the 19-year-old is a student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and plans to major in fine arts.
"I'm very grateful," Cheryl Scharf said. "The experience and care at UCSF was fabulous and, of course, my son is alive."
On June 17, the Sharfs shared a picnic lunch - and stories of how the UCSF Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program changed their lives - at the first Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion and Picnic, held at the Marinwood Community Center in San Rafael.
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| Mary Gavette, 20, of Petaluma, Lorriane Leber and her son, Vincent Seckman, 3, of San Francisco, and Nick Scharf, 19, of San Carlos, share a moment together at the UCSF Children's Hospital Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion on June 17. Gavette, Seckman and Scharf received bone marrow transplants at UCSF Children's Hospital. |
The event was attended by more than 100 people, including bone marrow transplant recipients and their families. It was the first such major reunion in more than 20 years.
"Every one of those patients would not have been there [at the picnic] if they hadn't had a transplant," said Mort Cowan, MD, professor of pediatrics and chief of the Bone Marrow Transplant Division at UCSF Children's Hospital. "They all had fatal diseases. To see all of the successes like that in one location is a pretty emotional experience. What could be any more heartwarming than that?"
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| Mort Cowan, chief of the Bone Marrow Transplant Division at UCSF Children's Hospital, poses with former patient Mary Gavette, 20, of Petaluma, and Linda Abramovitz, pediatric bone marrow transplant clinical nurse specialist. |
Cowan, who started the Bone Marrow Transplant Program, enjoyed the gathering. "They spend so much time with us when they're sick and in the hospital getting the transplant. They're part of our family. It was like a big family reunion."
Pioneering Transplant Program
UCSF's Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program was started in 1982. During the past 24 years, more than 600 transplants have been performed at UCSF Children's Hospital. In 1982, UCSF performed the first partially matched bone marrow transplant on the West Coast, using bone marrow from a parent for a child with a severe immunodeficiency disease. Today, UCSF is a leader in special treatment options for children with primary immunodeficiency diseases, marrow failure syndromes, genetic diseases, cancers and other life-threatening illnesses.
Bone marrow transplants can be lifesaving treatments for children who have cancer such as leukemia and lymphoma, as well as diseases of the immune system, aplastic anemia that occurs when bone marrow stops producing new blood cells, inherited diseases of the bone marrow such as sickle cell anemia, and some metabolic diseases.
Transplants involve replacing diseased marrow with healthy marrow injected into the bloodstream via an intravenous tube. The marrow may come from a healthy donor or healthy stem cells.
For more information on UCSF Children's Hospital,
visit the website. To find a doctor, please call the Physician Referral Service at 888/689-UCSF (888/689-8273)
or send an email.
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| More than 100 people, including bone marrow transplant recipients and their families, attended the reunion on June 13. (See image larger) |
