Readers respond to Pingree Grove girl's plight for stem cell donation
A total of 162 people responded to a call for stem cell donors for a sick Pingree Grove girl after she was profiled by the Daily Herald, and the hope is that many more will sign up.
Lavinia Santos, 6, has a rare, life-threatening autoimmune disease that affects less than one in a million people. Her parents are only partial matches and patients are most likely to find a full match from someone from the same ethnic background.
The results so far have been very successful, Erica Sevilla, multicultural public relations strategist for Be The Match, said Wednesday.
"On the day the story appeared (Saturday) the registrations represented 8 percent of our overall registrations for that day - which is very, very good," Sevilla said. "Typical drives might register 30 people. If it's a high-profile person on a college campus, maybe 75 or so."
Lavinia has been waiting for a stem cell transplant since age 2. She suffers from complete interferon-gamma receptor deficiency, so she can't properly fight infections stemming from nontuberculous mycobacteria common in water and soil.
Only 7 percent of the 19 million registered donors on Be The Match are Hispanic or Latino, which means Lavinia has a 46 percent chance of finding a match, compared to a 77 percent probability for white patients.
Of the 162 registrants stemming from the Daily Herald story, 73 were from diverse ethnic backgrounds, which was "higher than expected," Sevilla said.
Lavinia's mother, Ana Paula Santos, said she's happy people want to help. "So many people contacted us and were sharing on Facebook pages," she said.
Santos and her husband, Gilmar, have shielded Lavinia as much as possible from the seriousness of her illness, so the little girl is unaware of the publicity, her mother said.
Santos said she hopes more people will sign up for Be The Match - and not just for Lavinia. "It's so rare to find a match for someone," she said.
Sevilla agreed. "Our biggest hope is to see stories like this go viral to help drive more interest and registrations beyond Chicago ... " Sevilla said. "We all need to spread the word as much as possible because blood stem cell donation is a safe, relatively pain-free process that helps save lives."
To find out if you are a potential donor for Lavina, visit join.bethematch.org/loveforlavinia.