OSI agent saves life by donating bone marrow

  • Published
  • By Special Agent Marnie Vedo
  • Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 602
He knows what it's like to lose someone close to him. His mother and uncle died of cancer when he was 19.

Hoping to help in any way he could, Special Agent Mark Capps, a member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 602 at Andersen enrolled into the Department of Defense Bone Marrow Program in 1995.

"It was a difficult time for me then, and I thought it was the least I could do [entering the program] in their memory," he said.

In June, 11 years after entering the program, Agent Capps was finally called upon to fulfill his committment. He received a call from the DoD Bone Marrow Program indicating he was a preliminary match.

During the next three months, Agent Capps provided countless vials of blood for further testing. Eventually, it was determined he was the best match and arrangements were made for him to travel to Falls Church, Va., to make his bone marrow donation.

Agent Capps was authorized a travel companion, his wife, and when he indicated he planned on bringing his daughter, the program also paid for her ticket.

"The program was great," Agent Capps said. "Everything was paid for, from our plane tickets to our stay at the Marriott. We even received $100 a day for food."

Once they settled in at the hotel, Agent Capps' process to donate bone marrow was a little different than what most might think. There was no drilling into the hip bone to extract bone marrow. Instead, a lesser known method, known as a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation was used.

During the course of five days, Agent Capps received daily filgrastim injections. Filgrastim is a stem cell growth factor medication that increases the number of stem cells released from the bone marrow into the blood stream so they can be collected through an apheresis procedure.

The five- to six-hour apheresis procedure is similar to donating platelets; a needle in one arm feeds blood into the machine where the stem cells and white blood cells are removed from the blood. Anticoagulants are then mixed into the blood, and the blood is warmed and then returned to the body through a needle in the opposite arm.

"Each morning, I received two shots, one in the back of each arm, which stung a little worse than the anthrax shot," Agent Capps explained.

Side effects from the injections for Agent Capps included severe migraines, nausea, hip and shoulder pain, joint pain and body fatigue. "After the third set of injections, I couldn't tolerate having the lights on and by the fourth set, the nausea really kicked in," he said. "After the process, my headache went away quickly, but my overall fatigue lasted for another week."

All side effects from the treatment are reversible and usually disappear completely within a few days or weeks.

After it was over, Agent Capps, who spent a week recuperating with family in Connecticut, said the entire process was easy and the pain was bearable, considering the stakes.

"Every time my head felt like it was going to split open or I became nauseated, I just kept thinking this is nothing compared to whatever the potential recipient must be going through," he said.

According to the DoD bone marrow registry's web site, bone marrow donation can be used to treat more than 70 potentially fatal diseases.

For now, Agent Capps's gift is an anonymous one, and the recipient's condition is a mystery. Following the procedure, the donor and recipient are allowed to communicate anonymously for one year.

After that, if they so choose, they may exchange information and meet. Until then, Agent Capps wishes the recipient the best and encourages others to support the DoD Bone Marrow Program.

The program features free testing and entry to the registry and aims to widen the pool of potential donors so eventually all in need of a bone marrow donation can find a match.

The registry is especially in need of minority registrants because their tissue types are less likely to already be on the registry. Further information regarding the DoD Bone Marrow Program and how to register, log on to http://www.dodmarrow.org.