Fil-Am LA cop needs bone marrow match to survive blood disorder
SAN FRANCISCO — A Filipino American police Los Angeles officer needs to find a match from someone who shares his Filipino heritage.
Los Angeles Police Department officer Matthew Medina, a father of two, has aplastic anemia, a blood disorder. He needs a bone marrow transplant to survive.
He has the consistent support of his wife, Angelee, and family as well as his friends and colleagues; but his immune system has been compromised, limiting his presence at marrow match drives on his behalf.
Finding a bone marrow match are generally difficult and worse for many ethnic groups where registered donor numbers are lower.
Of people registered as potential marrow donors Filipinos make up only a half percent. This makes the odds of finding a match extremely low. The Medina family teamed up with A3M to get more people to register, according to a report by ABC7 News.
More bone marrow drives are being set up every day. To find out more, check out Medina’s Match4Matt Facebook page.
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