The bone marrow of a young Greek individual has become a source of hope for a Turkish boy suffering from leukemia who on Thursday underwent a transplant operation in the Mediterranean province of Adana.
Doctors say that the operation on three-year-old Kuzey Deniz Şengezer, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2019, was successful. “We successfully performed stem cell transplantation without any side effects. For us, the first episode has ended successfully,” said Bülent Antmen, the doctor who performed the procedure.
The Greek donor, identified only by his first name, Andreas, is from Chania on the Greek island of Crete. His bone marrow was 90 percent compatible with the marrow of young Kuzey.
The story of the kind offer of the Cretan man was revealed last month by Greece’s infectious diseases expert, Dr. Sotiris Tsiodras.
Tsiodras, who has become a household name after overseeing Greece’s daily briefing on the coronavirus, thanked two Greek donors who he said demonstrated “great courage” in offering bone marrow during the pandemic.
“I want to publicly thank Savvas from northern Greece and Andreas from Crete, who offered bone marrow, despite the human fear in these difficult conditions,” Tsiodras stated.
“Moreover, one of the marrow donations is matching with a young person in need in Turkey. Here is the solidarity of the peoples against the common enemy,” the physician added.
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