Carpino & Ziobron Join Bone Marrow Drive

HARTFORD- State Reps. Christie Carpino (R-32) and Melissa Ziobron (R-34) participated in the First Annual Bone Marrow Drive at the State Capitol by submitting a sample for the registry in hopes of saving a life.

The sponsors of today’s State Capitol Bone Marrow Drive were hopeful to get as many volunteers as possible to join the “Be the Match Registry” – the largest and most diverse registry in the world to find a life-saving donor.

In 2011, Carpino supported legislation, Public Act 11-88, An Act Requiring Health Insurance Coverage for Bone Marrow Testing, which increased the number of people tested and added to the donor list — and thereby increasing the number of transplant matches found, as well as decreasing the amount of time patients are on the list before transplant — would reduce the cost of the medical treatment that would otherwise be covered by insurance as medically necessary in lieu of transplantation.

The bill addressed significant barriers to bone marrow testing which is the cost to a potential donor. The legislation expanded participation in bone marrow donation and reducing this impediment by limiting the out-of-pocket cost to the donor. The bill would also ensure that bone marrow testing is performed in safe, accredited facilities, and that all results are shared in a secure, national database.

“Connecticut has made tremendous efforts in helping encourage more donors to join the National Marrow Donor Program increasing the likelihood that more patients will find the match they need and get a second chance at life,” said Rep. Carpino.

“Bone marrow donations simply don’t get the kind of attention they deserve. Increasing the size of the national donor database is crucial to helping people that are suffering from a variety of diseases; in fact, what most people may not realize is it literally takes minutes to join the registry,” Ziobron added.

All that is required to join the registry is a small amount of paperwork and a couple of painless swabs of the inside of the mouth. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 44 are eligible.
Bone marrow transplant is an effective treatment for more than 70 life threatening diseases, including Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Leukemia and other cancers. In order for a bone marrow transplant to happen, a simple blood test must first be done to find donors with the closest bone marrow match possible, so the patient has the best chance of successful transplant. Some patients never find an appropriate match, and die while waiting on the list for bone marrow transplant.

Currently, it is very difficult for a patient to find a donor, simply because of improbability. Each year approximately 10,000 patients in the U.S. search the national database, which has 10 million participants, for potential bone marrow donors. However, just half of those patients will actually find a match in the database.

For more information visit the National Marrow Donor Program website at www.marrow.org