The query got here at dinner towards the tip of June.
Anesthesiologist Nick Mondek, 48, was dying of acute myeloid leukemia, a most cancers that impacts blood-forming cells within the bone marrow. It was a critical subject to sort out together with his then-9-year-old son, Stephen, as they ate bowls of pasta.
But Mondek wanted a stem cell donor — and quick. So he requested his son to save lots of his life.
The teen agreed to be examined at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to see if he might donate stem cells to his father.
The Rolling Hills Country Day fourth-grader, who desires of turning into a physician for a Major League Baseball crew, had his personal query first: “When will we go?”
In July, Stephen grew to become what Cedars-Sinai Medical Center believes is its youngest recognized stem cell donor.
“I simply wished to assist,” Stephen mentioned.
His donation doesn’t simply purchase his father time however affords hope that Stephen’s stem cells will construct a more recent, stronger immune system that can assist his father combat off blood most cancers.
“I wished him to do that as his personal resolution,” Mondek mentioned. “I didn’t need him to really feel compelled. I didn’t need him to really feel like he needed to do it.”
Nick Mondek, a 48-year-old anesthesiologist, was dying of acute myeloid leukemia, a most cancers that impacts blood-forming cells within the bone marrow, and wanted a stem donation to rebuild his immune system. His 9-year-old son Stephen stepped in to assist.
(Courtesy of Cedars-Sinai)
Mondek’s journey from physician to affected person started in April 2022.
The then-45-year-old, an worker on the Martin Luther King Jr. Ambulatory Surgery Center, felt continually fatigued with little urge for food. Then in the future he couldn’t flip his head. His resting coronary heart fee jumped from a typical 60 beats per minute to a regarding, racing 100 bpm.
“Being a typical cussed doctor, I simply stored writing it off,” he mentioned. “I’d take antibiotics, I’d take ibuprofen, considering it’s this, considering it’s that, not even entertaining the truth that it might be most cancers and even leukemia.”
Weeks of unrelenting signs led Mondek to take a easy Complete Blood Count, or CBC, take a look at. He was hospitalized inside hours of receiving the outcomes.
Mondek first discovered assist in his brother, whose stem cell donation despatched Mondek’s blood most cancers into remission.
In April, nevertheless, the leukemia returned.
“We adopted each scientific protocol, however the illness nonetheless managed to return again, so we had a brand new drawback on our palms,” Dr. Ronald Paquette, scientific director of the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, mentioned in a information launch. “How might we deal with his most cancers a second time round and have a greater likelihood that it doesn’t return?”
Paquette and Mondek looked for genetic matches however discovered none in his household or within the National Bone Marrow Registry.
Stephen Montek together with his dad, Nick; mother, Danielle Boyer, and brother, John.
(Courtesy of Cedars-Sinai)
That’s when Mondek opted for a curveball.
He recalled a buddy efficiently fought lymphoma after receiving a stem cell transplant from his 18-year-old son.
Paquette confirmed that Stephen, who turned 10 final month, was a risk. Stephen was mechanically a partial match since youngsters obtain half their DNA from every of their mother and father.
Further testing revealed that Stephen’s immune system was appropriate together with his father’s.
Mondek’s subsequent dialog together with his son was much more difficult than the preliminary lifesaving ask. He needed to clarify the ins and outs of the taxing preparation and process.
A bandage covers Stephen Mondek’s neck the place a central line catheter was inserted for the stem cell donation.
(Courtesy of Cedars-Sinai)
“Every day, I inform sufferers concerning the dangers and advantages earlier than their procedures,” Mondek mentioned. “And clearly they’re over 18 they usually’re adults, to allow them to perceive the professionals and cons. So it’s like, how do I discuss to a 9-year-old?”
Mondek defined to his son that there can be a number of weeks of pre-donation prep that included photographs and blood exams. Although his son had reservations, he wasn’t involved about anesthesia or procedures. He did have one fear.
“I didn’t need to miss any time enjoying baseball,” mentioned Stephen, a Chicago Cubs fan and a catcher on the Rolling Hills Little League baseball crew.
There have been, nevertheless, particular issues due to Stephen’s age. A standard stem cell donation, as an illustration, is mostly a non-surgical process during which blood is extracted from an arm by means of an IV.
Since Stephen’s veins are considerably smaller than an grownup’s, docs needed to discover one other entry level.
Stephen arrived the day of his process at 7 a.m. He was positioned in pediatric ICU, given basic anesthesia, intubated and placed on a ventilator earlier than a central line (catheter) was inserted into his neck, based on his father.
Stephen was then extubated and woken up, after which he rested for an hour earlier than his blood was drained and spun by means of a centrifuge for six hours to separate out the stem cells.
“A donation from a baby this younger could be very uncommon,” essential care pediatrician Dr. Hoyoung Chung mentioned. “Stephen was very courageous, and our crew made certain every part went completely in order that this younger boy might assist his father.”
Stephen went dwelling that very same day to his father, mom Danielle Boyer, and his youthful brother, John.
His father’s restoration was not practically as fast.
Mondek was admitted on July 23 and spent six days at Cedars receiving chemotherapy to suppress his immune system, making it much less more likely to reject Stephen’s cells.
Mondek handed an extra two weeks within the hospital to guard his fledgling and weak immune system.
Paquette advised Mondek that though the surgical procedure was profitable, it might take greater than a yr to find out if his new immune system, powered by his son’s cells, might defeat the leukemia. For now, he’d simply have to attend.
On Aug. 16, Mondek was lastly discharged from the hospital.
He drove straight to Stephen’s baseball sport to catch his son’s remaining inning.
