Babies' cords hope for Troy Hardy

Andrea Hardy is dreaming of the day she writes to the babies who saved her husband's life.

Yesterday her husband was given two umbilical cords of blood, with the high content of stem cells to replenish his body with healthy white blood cells.

Troy Hardy, 41, of Timaru, is in the South Island Bone Marrow unit in Christchurch, having been there in isolation for nearly 80 days as he is treated for a rare from of leukaemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia.

Yesterday's transplant was a huge day for the family, as it is his only viable hope for survival.

His wife was there for the entire process, which began with total body irradiation to kill any remaining cancer cells the six days of chemotherapy he had in the leadup did not get to. Then leukaemia free, stem cells from the cord blood set about giving him new healthy blood.

"The morning was nerve-wracking. He was packed into a perspex box and covered in bags of rice, with just his head and his wee knobbly knees visible," Mrs Hardy said. "I felt a bit disturbed by it all and had to walk away at one point. I imagine he was doing some serious meditating or listening to his music that was playing while he was in there."

The rice was to trick the radiation machine into believing he was a box, so it can grid and laser the entire space, and get to every point in his body.

"It took about two hours, with an hour of setting up and then 50 minutes of radiation. It was awesome at the end they let me help unpack him, that was just such a great feeling."

From here, he was taken to another room for the cord blood transfusion.

"It was quite a non-event, it was just a drip, but so amazing in what it was doing. I couldn't help but think about the babies the blood came from and wondered how they are getting on. I look forward to writing to them and telling them of the amazing thing they have done for us. You could smell the cord blood, it smelt like sweetcorn, it was very strange."

Two cords of blood was used because the father of two is an adult, whereas only one would be required for a child. He was unable to have a bone-marrow transplant to treat the leukaemia because no match could be found for him on the world database after he was diagnosed in May. Instead the cord blood was flown in from a baby in Spain and one in Italy.

Now it is a waiting game for the family, with Mr Hardy in isolation to ensure he does not get an infection while his body has a low white blood cell count and his immunity was so low.

"It will take two or three weeks for the doctors to know if in-graftment [the cord blood integrating into his body and creating new healthy white blood cells] has happened. Until then we are just crossing our fingers and toes."

* To follow the Hardy family's journey visit the website www.thistledew.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News