A schoolboy has become one of the youngest stem cell donors after helping to save his father’s life from deadly blood cancer.
Stephen Mondek was just nine years old when he underwent a gruelling procedure to give his dad Nick, who has acute myeloid leukaemia, a brand-new immune system.
The youngster spent hours hooked up to machines while doctors extracted his stem cells – a donation that could keep his father alive.
“A donation from a child this young is very rare,” said Hoyoung Chung, DO, a critical care paediatrician at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s in Los Angeles, US.
“Stephen was very brave and our team made sure everything went perfectly so that this young boy could help his father.”
Stephen, now 10, added: “I felt good helping my dad, and it felt good to have him home.”
Nick, an anaesthesiologist and dad-of-two, was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2022.
A transplant from his brother initially sent the disease into remission but the cancer cruelly returned earlier this year.
With no matches among relatives or on the national donor registry, the family were running out of options.
Doctors explained that Stephen could be a half-match for his dad and that a younger donor often offers the best chance of long-term success.
After tests confirmed compatibility, and with the little boy eager to help, the medical team cleared him to proceed.
After weeks of preparation, Stephen was placed under general anaesthetic so a catheter could be inserted into his neck.
For six hours, his blood was cycled through a centrifuge to harvest enough stem cells for the transplant.
Nick said: “Being an anaesthesiologist, I put people to sleep every day, so I reassured myself that everyone wakes up when they go to sleep under anaesthesia.
“But during the whole process that I’ve gone through, those 60 minutes when Stephen was asleep were probably the toughest.
“Everything lined up for this.
“Doctors said the perfect donor for me would be someone who’s young and healthy and a 50 per cent match, and we found him.
“He was right here in front of us.”
The donation was completed in July and the family were able to return home that same night.
Days later, Nick was admitted for chemotherapy to suppress his immune system before receiving his son’s stem cells.
It can take several weeks for donor cells to grow and the dad-of-two was kept in hospital to protect his fragile immune system.
By mid-August, Nick was discharged and even managed to watch the final inning of his son’s baseball game, as reported by Need To Know.
Doctors say it may be a year or more before it is clear if the transplant has beaten the cancer for good – but the dad remains hopeful.
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