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Bone Marrow Transplant Milestone
7 June 2012
Bone Marrow Transplant Milestone
Today is a big day for the Waikato Hospital Haematology Department and equally big for consultant haematologist Dr Humphrey Pullon who established the transplant service there 20 years ago.
The first autologous bone marrow transplant was carried out at Waikato Hospital on 25 June 1992 and was today celebrated with a patient afternoon tea, which about 120 transplant recipients attended.
“By the end of the month we will have performed 317 transplants in 301 patients over the past 20 years,” said Dr Pullon.
“The first patient went down to Wellington to have her stem cells collected and they were then driven back up to be stored here She is still alive, but was unable to attend today.
“We did the stem cell collection of the second patient, who is sadly no longer alive, and our third patient was cured of Lymphoma as a result of his transplant.”
The third patient was Lloyd Given of Tauranga who attended today’s afternoon tea.
”I would like to extend my thanks to Waikato Hospital, Humphrey and the oncologist at the time, Grant Trotter,” he said.
The autologous bone marrow transplant process is a long and involved one.The cancer patient is treated and goes into remission or gets to a point where the cancer is well controlled.
Their bone marrow stem cells are collected on a blood separator machine run by blood transfusion nurses, and those cells are then frozen and stored at the Waikato Regional Blood Centre.
The patient then goes into ward 25 at Waikato Hospital where they undergo a “strong blast” of chemotherapy and sometimes radiation.
The cells are thawed out and are then transplanted back into the patient – hence the term autologous – meaning their own cells are used. Transplants from other people (allogeneic transplants) are performed in Auckland.
The patient is usually in hospital for just under three weeks. During one of those weeks their body’s defences are very low, so they are nursed in isolation.
“Stem cell transplant is a very much a team process,” said Dr Pullon.
“It involves doctors, nurses, laboratory staff, blood transfusion staff, dietitians, social workers, Allied Health, as well as support staff.
“About 70-80 staff contribute to the patient in some way throughout their transplant journey.”
Dr Pullon has seen many changes to the service since he established it all those years ago.
It was first delivered from the Smith Building in ward 21, and moved to ward 25 in 1998 where a new refurbished combined Haematology/Oncology ward was opened by Bill English.
It is on the move again as part of the building programme at Waikato Hospital and will move into level five of the Menzies Building in September 2012.
“Other changes have seen the programme accelerated so where we used to perform about 10 transplants per year, we now carry out 35-40,” said Dr Pullon.
“Patients used to be in hospital for 40-plus days – this is now down to about 19 days.
“And the procedure related death rate has improved.– it is now just two per cent.”
Only adult patients are treated at Waikato, whilst children are cared for at Starship Hospital. The youngest patient to receive a transplant at Waikato was nine years old (before Starship) and the oldest 70 years of age.
About Waikato District Health Board and Health Waikato:
Waikato DHB is responsible for planning, funding and providing quality health and disability support services for the 372,865 people living in the Waikato DHB region. It has an annual turnover of $1.2 billion and employs more than 6000 people.
Health Waikato is the DHB’s main provider of hospital and health services with an annual budget of more than $701 million and 5238 staff. It has six groups across five hospital sites, three primary birthing units, two continuing care facilities and 20 community bases offering a comprehensive range of primary, secondary and tertiary health services.
A wide range of independent providers deliver other Waikato DHB-funded health services - including primary health, pharmacies and community laboratories.
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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