Giving thanks by giving and saving a life

Thanksgiving has a special meaning for U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Carlos Garcia. He helped save the life of a 2-year-old boy.

Last week, rather than intercepting dangerous contraband coming into the country, Garcia underwent a surgical procedure to donate bone marrow used to save the life of the child. The boy was dying from cancer.

Details of the boy’s condition were kept from the officer because of confidentiality issues. Garcia has never met the boy or knows his name. He just knows they are a medical match and that doctors told him he was the boy’s last hope.

"I did it to save a life, to make a difference in that young boy’s life, so he can hopefully have a prosperous life," Garcia said.

The CBP officer has been a blood donor since 1991 with United Blood Services and requested to be added to the Be The Match, a bone marrow registry.

In mid-October, Garcia was contacted by the registry and told that he was a match and asked if he was interested in donating. Garcia had also been a match in January, but the recipient passed away before the process could be done.

After agreeing to the process, Garcia underwent medical testing and then on the date of the procedure, drove to San Antonio’s Methodist Hospital. There he underwent the procedure, which lasted more than two hours.

"They laid me down and put me to sleep," Garcia said. "They injected this syringe into my body (hip area), then they put another syringe inside it that breaks the bone. Once they tap into the bone, they begin to extract bone marrow. I gave about six cups of bone marrow."

The chance of a donor matching with a recipient is approximately one in 200, said Antoine Laframboise, a spokeswoman for Be The Match.

"Every year 10,000 people are diagnosed with a disease than can be treated with a bone marrow transplant," Laframboise said.

Currently, bone marrow transplants can be used to treat up to 70 diseases, including leukemia and lymphoma.

Matches are based on tissue types and genetics. Usually the best chance, about 70 percent, for finding a match lies in family members. When a match is not found, doctors and recipients can search the registry, the spokeswoman said.

Last year, Be The Match was able to assist 4,000 recipients in getting transplants; every day the registry does approximately 6,000 searches for a match.

When asked if he felt like a hero, Garcia said, "No. I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m just one person helping another. ... Happy Holidays."