Raised in Wapato, Washington, Sam and his wife Jan and five children live in Waukesha. Bone marrow is the tissue that manufactures various components of the blood and the immune system-red blood cells, white cells and platelets. Statistics show that only about 40 percent of patients have a matched family member and about one in 20,000 for the rest of the population.
Marrow is removed from the back of the donor's hip bones using a syringe and needle.
This is done in an operating room under general or spinal anesthesia. The entire process takes about one hour. It normally involves a hospital stay of one or two days. It takes two to four weeks to find out if the new marrow has taken hold and is beginning to produce new blood cells.