GREAT NECK, NY-- For years Ellen Simon had suffered with a low white blood cell count and a compromised immune system.  She went to seven doctors until she finally received the diagnosis she most feared -- she had leukemia.

Diagnosed with myelodysplasia syndrome (MDS), Ms. Simon went through many blood transfusions and was told that this syndrome might lead to a much-needed bone marrow transplant. Myelodysplasia Syndrome is the name of a group of conditions that occur when the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow are damaged. This damage leads to low numbers of one or more type of blood cells. Eventually, Ms. Simon did get the news that she indeed did have acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and that she would have to have a bone marrow transplant.

None of her relatives were a match, and so Ms. Simon’s greatest hope was that a matching donor would appear on the Gift of Life Registry.  To her surprise, an unrelated matching donor was found - a young rabbinical student, who along with his entire yeshiva class decided to donate their bone marrow and be part of the national and international registry. Adding to Ms. Simon’s amazement, she later found out that her generous donor had initially given his donation at North Shore University Hospital, the same hospital where she had chosen to have her bone marrow transplant done at the hospital’s Don Monti Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Unit, under the direction of Ruthee-Lu Bayer, MD.

“The day that I found out that I had a matching donor was a most special day, as it was the first night of Chanukah. This was the best present I could have gotten,” Ms. Simon said. She did not know the identity of her donor at this point, but she still wrote him grateful letters expressing her deeply felt thanks. “I thanked him every day, because if it was not for him, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Ms. Simon finally got her wish a year later, when she finally met Rabbi Michael, her donor, at the yearly Celebration of Life Dinner hosted by the Don Monti Memorial Research Foundation. “We ran into each other’s arms and hugged and cried,” she said. “I kept saying, `thank you, thank you,’ and he said, `no, you’ve done something for me.’ He told me that he never knew how special it was to do something like this until that exact moment when he met me in person.”

Today, life is very good for Ms. Simon, as she volunteers her time at the Bone Marrow Unit on 7 Monti at North Shore University Hospital. Her advice to patients living through what she survived is to remain positive. “There are so many survivors out there like me because of donors like Michael who go on the registry. If you can save one patient’s life, that’s a wonderful thing to do.”

Watch Ellen Simon tell her story on North Shore-LIJ’s “Medical Update,” which airs this Saturday, October 17 at 11 a.m. on WLNY-TV, which can be seen on Channel 10 on Long Island Cablevision and on Verizon FiOs TV, and on Channel 55 on Time Warner Cable in the City of New York, and on DirecTV and DishTV.

Media Contact: Elaine Wohl
516-465-2615/2600
ewohl@nshs.edu