"In trying to save a life, I guess I almost lost my own.  I have always believed in the importance of helping other people." Lina , a dental office manager in Southern California told us in all honesty.  "Therefore when a speaker for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) came to our church  looking for possible donors for a local boy who was dying of leukemia, I signed up immediately . This will be simple I thought" she said "and if I can't be a donor for him, maybe I can be for someone else. I wasn't a match for the boy, but my name and medical information were entered into the program's huge database in April 1989. I didn't think about it again until September 1996 when I got a letter from the program saying that they had found a patient, a husband and father of three in Australia, more than half a world away, with leukemia, who exactly matched me. I was thrilled. That evening when my husband, Governor (his name is a family joke that stuck) came home I excitedly told him 'I'm going to save someone's life'."

Things moved quickly after that. There were more more blood tests . A representative from the program told me briefly about the procedure. I'd be put under general anesthesia and the doctors would insert a large syringe into both hips to extract the marrow. That day I also signed a consent form saying that I was committed to being a donor. Then once I passed the required physical my recipient would get massive doses of chemotherapy to destroy all his own bone marrow. If I backed out and they couldn't find a last minute replacement he would die. Prospective donors must receive information that is realistically balanced between protecting donors and saving recipient patients. "I feel the warnings on the donor forms are insufficient", said one doctor who runs a major center. He spoke on the condition of anonynimity.  The two-page consent form signed by Lina Joy does discuss the risk and includes this sentence: "Life threatening reactions from bone marrow donation are extemely rare, however, the NMDP wants you to recognize that fatal complications during marrow donation could occur."   Lina Joy read all of this but of course, she never thought a problem would arise in trying to save another person's life by donating some of her own bone marrow. She thought it would be a snap.  The risk of serious complications - an infection or an anesthesia reaction or lung problems such as pneumonia due to anesthesia, or an injury to bone from collection - runs around one to three per 1,000 collections in the past 20 years.

However within a day after going home from the hospital after the marrow harvesting the Joys realized there was a problem. Lina Joy had severe pain in her right hip and a high fever . She couldn't move her right leg at all. When Lina returned to the hospital it was found that an infection had taken root in her pelvis. She would be hospitalized four more times a total of 65 days in the next four months.

She was given massive doses of increasingly powerful antibiotics.  Those antibiotics took their own toll provoking a massive reaction including chills and a purple rash covering her entire body she was racked with coughing , her dermis separated from the underlying muscles in parts of her body, her tongue and the lining of her lungs peeled and she fell into a deep coma. The doctors told her husband Governor that she was close to death three times.

Her recovery was very slow.  Her case also prompted some consumer advocates to suggest that a good Samaritan law should hold donors free from liability for the horrendous medical bills that were incurred.  The Joys' ordeal emphasizes the inexorable tension between the need to gather the lifesaving marrow and the obligation to insure that donors recognize the real risks in even simple surgery. Lina now gets frequent rashes, she limps , she is losing the pigmenting in her skin. There is a slur in her speech, she still has pain in her hip. She has had to come to the conclusion that while she'll never be quite the same as she was before,

She has to see a rheumatologist frequently now and she is no longer the whiz at math like she used to be, and she also now has lupus-like symptoms. Lina said, "Despite everything, I'm not bitter. I believe that God has a plan for me."

Two months after she woke from the coma she was able to be with her daughter when her second child was born. A year later Governor and Lina celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary by renewing their wedding vows in front of two hundred and fifty family members and friends.  Lina says, "The ordeal truly strengthened our marriage." Most of all she says, "I've learned how precious life is and I still believe in marrow donations." Lina still is an office manager for a dental office and a very beautiful, positive and upbeat lady.