Donor match found for Turkish leukaemia patient

A BONE marrow match for a Turkish leukaemia patient has been found on the island, Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides confirmed yesterday.

A matching donor was being sought for 20-year-old Emine Ozan. The Karaiskakio Foundation in Nicosia has been working for some time with Turkish bone marrow donor registries.

Treatment of Ozan was delayed because of complications in a previous case involving another Turkish leukaemia patient, Umut Utlu. Utlu’s family had been unable to settle their bill after receiving bone marrow from the south of the island; the patient was later taken to Turkey, where surgery was successful.

Under the deal, Turkey’s Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant was meant to pay the expenses of the Karaiskakio Foundation, but did not. The glitch was political, as Turkish banks refused to handle the transaction because that would entail dealing with the Republic of Cyprus, which Turkey does not recognise.
On Emine’s case, Gavrielides commented yesterday that “we are looking at this solely from a medical standpoint.”
He would not say whether the donor match was Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot, citing patient-doctor confidentiality.

But Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that the donor was a Greek Cypriot and that, once laboratory tests proved the bone marrow was suitable, Emine would be ready for the operation in three weeks’ time.

The odds of finding suitable matches for bone marrow transplants are very low, because a number of factors —such as blood type and tissue type — need to be taken into account. There are over 90,000 donors registered with the Karaiskakio Foundation.

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