This article was published with permission from Jay Lenkersdorfer, Publisher, The Weekly News Journal
Rupert's Lopez Gives Gift of Life
By Jeri Bosley, Weekly News Journal
RUPERT, Idaho – Rupert’s Cody Lopez is a real lifesaver. A University of Idaho senior, Dean’s List honoree, and president of the Theta Chi Fraternity, all those accomplishments pale in comparison to one selfless act that likely saved a little girl’s life this spring.
Lopez graduated from Minico High School in 2010 and began his collegiate career at the University of Idaho as a pre-med major. He joined the Theta Chi Fraternity where he has been an active member and has resided the past three years. Lopez was elected president of the fraternity for the 2013 year last fall.
A “Get Swabbed” event was organized by a fellow member of the Theta Chi house and was held in November of 2012. Lopez participated, along with 1,250 other University of Idaho students, and hadn’t given it another thought until he received an email in February from DKMS. This non-profit organization was founded in 2004 and is based in New York City. It recruits volunteer bone marrow donors of all races and ethnicities to help leukemia patients in need of a bone marrow transplant.
The email stated that Lopez was a possible match and was instructed to call DKMS. Excited and stunned, he was unable to make the call until the next day because of the time difference. He was immediately assigned to a representative named Amy who was his contact throughout the process. Amy explained the process to him step by step. It was at this point he found out the patient was a 3-year old girl with childhood leukemia. She had been fighting the disease for two years and her only hope of survival was to receive a bone morrow transplant from a compatible donor. Family members of the little girl were immediately tested and none of them matched.
Shortly after sending in all of the necessary paperwork, Lopez was injured in a freak accident. His finger was closed in a door, and he suffered a compound/open fracture. “I knew immediately that the injury could prevent me from being a donor,” said Lopez. He contacted Amy, who gave him instructions. Keeping the injury clean and avoiding infection was crucial.
A month before the scheduled surgery, the girl began chemotherapy to destroy anything that could compromise the new bone marrow. Lopez needed to be completely healthy to continue with the process and ensure the best possible results.
The process is extremely painstaking to make sure the donor is in excellent health and can also handle the emotional stress he will experience.
Lopez flew to the east coast in the latter weeks of April for the surgery. Upon his arrival, he was evaluated once again and was scheduled for surgery. The surgery began at 7:00 a.m. and lasted 90 minutes. Most bone marrow transplants are given through blood transfusions, but because the patient was a young child and was so critically ill, the better choice was to have the marrow taken directly from Lopez’s pelvic bones. He received two small ¼ inch cuts in his back to extract the bone marrow. Usually patients stay overnight for observation, but because there weren’t any complications, Lopez was released at 5:00 p.m. and was allowed to fly back to Moscow for an important commitment he had the following evening.
He is recuperating well. Doctors told him that it could take up to two years for a full recovery, but that within two months he should see significant improvement in his energy level and soreness.
One week after the surgery, Amy was released as his representative, and he received a new representative to follow him for one year. The girl’s identity and health status is confidential and heavily guarded. Lopez received a call after one month and cannot comment on what specifics he was told except that it was good news. He will not hear any more until it has been six months. The next contact he will have will be at one year.
At that point, Lopez will be able to find out who his bone marrow recipient is, and exactly how she is doing. They can then make contact with each other if both parties agree.
Lopez looks forward to seeing a picture of the little girl and discovering what similarities they have. He is anxious to meet her and her family. “I want to have a conversation with them because I feel like I know them even though I know nothing about them,” said Lopez, “I now feel like they are an important part of my life. I am excited for that one year to come around. I want to get to know them.”
Lopez feels his life will never be the same. “You never realize how much life is worth until you are put in these situations. I enjoyed life and never felt like I took too much for granted and I try to be as thankful as I can,” Lopez continues, “After this, I think this could happen to anyone at anytime and you just don’t know when.”
He encourages everyone to consider getting swabbed or even organize a “Swabbing Event”. To get swabbed you can go online to getswabbed.org and they will send you a swab kit. When it arrives you swab the inside of your cheek and put it in the self addressed stamped envelope and put it in the mail.
Lopez returns to the University of Idaho for his senior year. After this experience he has changed from a pre-med student to a pre-nursing student. He will apply to the nursing program at Lewis Clark University in Lewiston. He is the son of Pete and Holly Lopez.
“The nurses were the ones I dealt with through this experience instead of the doctors,” said Lopez, “I want to go into anesthesiology and I will be going into the nursing program to get there. A nurse anesthetist does everything. They are there before, during, and after the procedure. That is who I talked to the whole time. I want to be that person who is with the patient every step of the way.”
Lopez also wanted to add, "I am the second of three members of Epsilon Kappa to have been chosen to donate in the last year and all have been to childhood leukemia patients. The members that were also chosen were Nic Carey (2014) and most recently Ryan Clark (2015) who is also our Secretary. Because it has impacted our chapter so much, we are in plans to hold "Get Swabbed" events annually to reach out to other members of the greek system and the rest of the University of Idaho."