By Aubreanna Miller
editor@wayneherald.com
When 2019 Wayne High graduate Terran Sievers signed up for the national stem cell registry the second he turned eighteen, he never thought he would be chosen to donate. With a one in a million chance of matching up with someone in need, how could he?
However, years later, Sievers received a call to help a stranger. And that call, he answered.
"I had previously heard of the stem cell registry in high school and knew I wanted to sign up," Sievers explained. "I have always had an interest in both science and helping others and this was the perfect way to put those two things together."
Upon signing up, he received a kit to swab his cheek. He then sent the kit back and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) took his DNA and filed it away in hopes to find a match someday.
"Some people on the registry never find a match," Sievers said. "When I did it, I was told I had a one in a million chance of being a match for someone. I remember thinking, 'It's not gonna happen.'"
For a few years, Sievers heard nothing from the donor program and went on with life as usual. He started college at Wayne State in the fall of 2019 studying science education.
Flash forward to July of 2023, Sievers received a call he thought he never would: his DNA had come up as a possible match for a patient. He took a trip to a doctor's office for blood testing to help in the match process. The doctors then compared his samples to that of the patient in need and found Sievers did not match closely enough. "I thought that would be the end of it," he remembered.
Not even a year later, on March 4 of 2024, the program once again gave Sievers a call. Using his original and secondary tests they had on file, the NMDP found Sievers had come up as the best match for someone in Houston, Texas.
All the NMDP could tell him included the gender, age of the person, that the person needed stem cells for a chemotherapy treatment and the date they would need the cells by: a quick three weeks later on March 21.
Immediately, Sievers accepted, saying he felt absolutely thrilled to help.
"I started with taking time off work and went to the doctor to do a physical and blood work in Sioux Falls," he said. "They wanted to make sure that I was healthy enough to go down this venture. I was given the final okay through NMDP and got ready to travel down to Texas."
Four days before going, he had to head to a clinic in Norfolk everyday to receive injections three times a day to boost his stem cells. He had to miss one day due to a conflict, he said.
The NMDP took care of the airline and the hotel costs. His mother, Angela Sievers, traveled with for support. On the flight down, Siever's nerves began to kick in.
"We flew down and settled into our hotel room that first night," Sievers said. "The next morning we had to arrive at the donor facility by 7 a.m. There were two of us donating at the time- myself and another girl from Tennessee."
Sievers had one IV in his hand and another in his elbow and had to receive another set of injections to prepare for the donation. Doctors took a blood sample to check on his level of stem cells and sent them off to a lab to be tested. By 11 a.m., when the tests came back, Sievers hit some complications.
According to the doctors, his stem cell count had been much lower than they expected. Presumably because he had missed one of the days of injections or because his kidneys had done a great job at filtering his blood, they explained.
This meant, Siever's donation would take much longer than usual. Still, he continued. Each drop of his donated blood went through the machine five separate times.
"I was there until 4 p.m. donating," he said. "It was uncomfortable for sure, but it was nice passing the time by talking to my mom and the nurses."
That night, he rested at the hotel and headed back to Nebraska the next morning. All the while, his stem cells were being transported to help a stranger.
"The process of receiving stem cells is not super complicated," Sievers explained. "Doctors first wiped out the immune system of the patient so it could be regenerated. My stem cells then helped generate new white blood cells to build up stronger immunity."
Sievers said there are no long term consequences for his health as a result of the donation process.
The NMDP encourages anonymity through the first year after the donation process. Sievers was told he could write an anonymous letter to his match with encouraging words. After a year, both parties can sign off to be able to contact each other.
"I am so grateful for the opportunity to help someone," Sievers said. "I always watched the videos of people meeting the donors that helped them through a rough time in their lives and that inspired me to sign up. If anyone else is thinking they want to sign up to be a donor, I say just do it."
