6. Sameer Bhatia diagnosed with Leukemia
• Sameer Bhatia, 32
• Grew up in Seattle
• Married Reena
• Stanford undergrad,
serial entrepreneur
• Diagnosed May 2007
7. 30%
sibling match
10,000
diagnosed
each year
70%
Registry from
Strangers (80%
if Caucasian)
23. Sameer, relapsed
within 3 months of
his transplant.
He fought hard – but
sadly, passed away
in March 2008.
24. Purpose…revealed.
Of the 24,000 new registered
donors, 7,500+ were registered in the
Bay Area.
From this 7,500+ they found ~ 80 new
matches for other leukemia patients
Sameer’s cause potentially led to 250
lives saved in the 2008 alone.
31. Course Homework
1. Sign up for Twitter and connect with me
(@3rhinomedia) and Nate. Send out a first tweet
with #lsc440, set up profile. NO LATER THAN
Wednesday BY 3:30 pm. This is for raising
hands, connecting. We will be using this for
documenting class.
2. Post a tweet about what type of academic
interests you have. Please note there will be 4
people per group. You can view the client list on
the website. Make connections with other
students, we will begin working in groups next
week!!!!!
3. Take the class survey posted on the class website
Editor's Notes
10,000 people are diagnosed with a blood or bone marrow cancer each year.The best chance for survival is often a bone marrow transfer.30% of patients find a match through their family.70% of those people need to look to strangers in the registry. If you are Caucasian, the chance of finding a match by strangers is 80%
1 in 20,000.And it is not just South Asians, other ethnic groups also are dramatically under-represented. And Sameer couldn’t find a match in his family or in the registry.
So how do you find a match?
Take a cotton swab, swab the inside of your cheek, and register the swab with a bone marrow registry.Now repeat that 20,000 times.But Sameer only had weeks to find a match
Take a cotton swab, swab the inside of your cheek, and register the swab with a bone marrow registry.Now repeat that 20,000 times.But Sameer only had weeks to find a match
Take a cotton swab, swab the inside of your cheek, and register the swab with a bone marrow registry.Now repeat that 20,000 times.But Sameer only had weeks to find a match
What could Robert and Sameer’s family and friends do?
The results in 11 weeks:470 bone marrow drives, across the US24,611 cheeks swabbed
An update on Sameer. Despite a perfect match, tragically, Sameer passed away.
