Bone marrow donor has change of heart

An anonymous donor who had initially agreed to provide a Dayton father with a life-saving bone marrow transplant ultimately decided against the procedure, leaving Vinod Challagundla devastated.

"This hurt us more than when we first came to know about my health problem," said Vinod, a native of India who now lives in Dayton with his wife and two children.

In December 2009, the soft-spoken former software consultant learned he suffered from myelofibrosis, a disorder in which fibrous tissue replaces the blood-producing cells in the bone marrow. If left untreated - a bone marrow transplant is the only option - it could turn into an incurable form of leukemia and take his life within five years.

Vinod's friends from across the country rallied around him and by September they had conducted 164 bone marrow drives in 21 states.

In all, said Vinod, 15,000 names were added to the bone marrow registry from drives in his honor. Among those, one person was a match.

When contacted by the National Bone Marrow Registry, the donor, whom Vinod knows only as a 37-year-old east Indian man, agreed to provide Vinod with the bone marrow to save his life.

So his wife Jyothsna took family leave from her job at the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the couple traveled to Seattle so Vinod could begin the six months needed for the procedure.

"It was one of the happiest days in a long time for our family," he said of the news that a match had been found. "We have not seen our kids in a while as they are staying with their grandparents in India because of my health problems. The thought of seeing them again in six to nine months gave us all the hope and strength we needed."

Over the course of two weeks, Vinod underwent a battery of pre-operative tests to determine if the match was right.

"Every test conducted on me and the donor to confirm the match (was) positive. (The) donor was scheduled to give his marrow/stem cells on the last week of September, 2010 and my tentative transplant date (was) the same day or next day," he said.

But then his doctors delivered the news. The donor had a change of heart.

"I mean it was heartbreaking. But we can't do anything on it. So we came back to our home," he said. "Now I am OK. The first couple of days it bothered me. I felt like, why at the last minute? Now I know the donor is there, but he's not proceeding. When you don't know that the donor is not there, you will have a feeling in your heart like, OK nobody is there."

Unable to work because of his increasingly deteriorating health, Vinod is undergoing weekly blood transfusions and counting on someone to save his life.

He has faith in the power of his friends, who've thus far proven they won't stop until they have to. More bone marrow drives are in the works, though no new dates have been set.

And now Vinod and his wife are juggling with his illness, preparing for a move to Carson City so he can be closer to the Carson Tahoe Cancer Center for testing three days a week, and deliberating on when they should bring their children home.

They are just holding onto hope, said Vinod.

"We hope that the donor's issues be resolved soon, which will allow him to come back to save our family in time," he said.