To Save A Life

To Save A Life

Michael Goldsmith is a graduate of the Valley Beth Shalom Day School (Class of 2000) and comes from a family of mensches. His mom, Barbara Goldsmith is a perennial co-chair of VBS’ annual Project Pushcart High Holiday drive and of Mitzvah Day. Michael is now an attorney who works with his father’s firm, Goldsmith & Hull. Two years ago at the High Holidays, Michael says, his mom was once again organizing volunteers to staff to the Project Pushcart information table when she told him that this year’s effort would be a registry donor drive for Be The Match and the National Bone Marrow Registry.

Michael says he’d heard of bone marrow donation before, but hadn’t thought much about it and didn’t know how easy it is to register. He signed up at VBS, using the simple mouth swab kit and return envelope that Be the Match provides and then didn’t think about it too much.

Six months later he got a call from Be the Match. They had a cancer patient for whom he might be the right donor. “Oh, yeah!,” Michael remembered and agreed to begin the process of determining whether he could donate for that recipient. Michael says the folks at Be the Match were very helpful. They go over all the details, make arrangements and cover all costs. They explained that he would need to give a blood sample and then he waited to hear back about results.

That first call did not ultimately lead to a donation. While the blood sample determined that Michael could be a donor for the intended recipient, something fell through and he was not asked to donate.

Just about eight months later, Michael heard from Be the Match again that they had found another possible recipient who could benefit from his bone marrow. Again, they scheduled a blood sample, got positive results and asked Michael to donate.

Last week, Michael went through the process, called apheresis to donate his bone marrow at Scripps Hospital in San Diego. He says it required five days of injections leading up to the procedure, which he was able to do locally in LA, to make it easier for the doctors to extract bone marrow from his blood. The procedure itself involved taking blood from one arm, extracting the bone marrow, and returning the blood through the other arm. Michael says it took about three hours and that he felt fine afterward, just really sore in the arm for a couple of days.

Michael says he doesn’t know much about the recipient, except that the person is 70 or 71 years old. At first Michael felt a bit disappointed that the recipient wasn’t a young cancer patient and then he realized that “it feels great to be able to extend another person’s life at whatever age they are, whether it’s for a few months or for years.” Michael says he remembers how lucky he was to have his own grandparents around until quite recently and “how important that was to all of us.”

“I think anyone who is physically able to do it should sign up,” Michael says. “It’s probably the easiest way that you can have a positive effect on someone else’s life.” Since his donation, Michael says he’s learned that only about 1 in every 300 registered donors are actually picked as matches. He’s feeling grateful to have been able to help another person in this way. He says several friends and co-workers have contacted him to get information on how to sign up.

The Talmud teaches us, “whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." Yasher koach to Michael for acting on that call.

You can learn more about bone marrow donation and register with Be the Match at Bethematch.org.