Thursday, May 25, 2000

Humble Hero Helps Stranger

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Monique Obregon, 12, and her father, Natividad Obregon.

"Nothing in this life is by accident," quipped Johnny Lerma.
   Living proof of that is 35-year-old Natividad Obregon, a Bishop Post Office letter carrier who recently saved the life of a stranger by donating bone marrow.
   "Nat is so modest he would never have told anyone," says Lerma, who serves with Obregon in a Texas Army National Guard medical platoon. "But just as God moved him to do what he did, he's moved me to tell the world what Nat did."
   The making of this humble hero began under ordinary circumstances, five years ago to be exact, while he was shopping at a local mall. There, Obregon and his wife came across a flyer that would forever change their lives.
   "We saw this picture and thought to ourselves what a pretty little girl she was," Obregon said.
   Yes, she was a pretty little girl from California, but one whose only hope of beating a life-threatening disease was a donor whose bone marrow proved a genetic match.

Donor information For information about the donor program, call (800) 292-5534, ext. 1576. Or call the local Community Blood Bank at 855-4943 or toll free at (800) 299-4943.

   Obregon thought of his own healthy daughter and immediately signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program, a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization with a center in San Antonio.
   "I wanted to do something for her if I could," Obregon said.
   Obregon wasn't a match and later found out the girl eventually died.
   But late last year, the Driscoll resident, unaware that his name remained on the donor program's national registry, received a call informing him that he was a match for a 29-year-old man battling leukemia.
   The call, Obregon said, was a chance to do what he wasn't able to for the girl whose eyes and smile spoke to him as only a father with a child of his own could understand.
   "My Dad died from cancer when I was 12," Obregon said. "I wish he had had a second chance. I guess that has stayed with me. That's why I was so determined to help out someone else."
   The procedure
   In March, with needle and syringe, San Antonio doctors performed the procedure, piercing through Obregon's skin, muscle and fatty tissue to reach the area called the Iliac crest, located between the waist and buttock area. From there they retrieved the liquid marrow that would later be transplanted into the waiting patient.
   Because of federal law, Obregon won't know the identity of the patient he helped until after a year.
   But he hopes to talk to him one day, curious to know if he helped to save the life of someone's father. What Obregon does know is that the patient he helped was well enough to be released from the hospital last Friday.
   And other than a bit of stiffness for the first few days after the procedure, Obregon experienced no side effects. Four days after making the bone marrow donation, Obregon was back delivering mail in Bishop.
   "Natividad is so conscientious," said Janie Marrero, Bishop Post Office postmaster. "That's just a part of his nature, to be concerned about others. And it even shows in his work.
   "He'll never brag, but honestly, what he did I can describe in one word - brave."
   As far as his 12-year-old daughter, Monique, is concerned, Dad is synonymous with "hero."
   "When I tell my friends about what my Dad did, they say, 'Wow, your Dad did that?"
   But what reaction her father's good deed elicits from friends is secondary to how it's changed her own perspective, Monique said.
   "When I'm old enough to sign up, I want to do the same thing my Dad did for someone who needed help," says the Driscoll Independent School District sixth-grader.
   Power to give hope
   By sharing Obregon's story, Lerma said he hopes others realize the power they have to give hope and possibly even life to those dying of blood diseases.
   "We live in a day and age when people won't even stop to help someone fix a flat," Lerma said. "Because of Natividad's quiet generosity, a man he has never met is alive and on the road to recovery."
   Meanwhile, thousands of other patients in need of marrow or blood stem cell transplants await a suitable donor.
   One of the donor program's efforts is to increase the number of Hispanic donors. Although it's possible for a Hispanic patient to match a donor from any racial or ethnic group, the most likely match is a Hispanic, said Arleen Villapadierna, the program's marrow donor supervisor.
   Potential donors
   As of April 30, there were nearly 4 million volunteer potential donors signed up nationwide. Only 316,974 were Hispanic.
   "That represents only 8 percent of the registry, virtually a drop in the bucket," Villapadierna said. "We must diversify our registry because patients are more likely to find a match with someone of the same genetic traits. And we're going out there to churches, community festivals, Hispanic chambers, you name it, to get the word out."
   Currently, there are 10 Hispanic South Texans waiting for a match, Villapadierna said.
   "Our campaign is all about giving people hope. We ask people to think of these patients as if they were their own brother, sister, son, daughter, mother or father.
   "Yes, we go for the heart. But truthfully, that is where everything in life begins and all ends. With the heart."
  
  
  
 

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