Ala was three years and ten months old when one day her mother noticed that her daughter had a fever. They took her to a doctor in Kerman to determine the cause. The doctor prescribed routine tests to check the child’s health, and in the first test, they realized that the child’s health was at risk and that she was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia).
Ala’s father says: “Before, we only knew about cancer through social media and television. We never thought we would face this disease ourselves.”
Mr. Salari says: “At the beginning of the diagnosis, we were hopeless. We were in shock. We had no information about the disease.”
Stem Cell Samples Could Not Be Found
Mr. Salari about his daughter’s treatment says: “We did chemotherapy for about a year, but the treating doctor said chemotherapy alone would not be effective. We had to proceed with a stem cell transplant. However, no donor sample could be found. Nine out of ten stem cell samples were located in the UK and Turkey, but when we requested to send them, we received no response and there was no cooperation.”
God Gave Us Sara to Help Her Sister
Ala’s father said: “At the same time that Ala became sick, we found out my wife was pregnant. Before Sara was born, we searched many international banks for a sample but could not find one. We even had to travel to Tehran every month to check for a new match, but nothing was found. By November 2021, we had lost hope of finding a matching sample for Ala’s transplant. We stopped going to Tehran for two months and waited for Sara to be born. All our hope was that Sara would arrive.”
Sara Was Born on December 31, 2021
Ala’s mother says: “We found out about Ala’s disease on May 28, 2021, and Sara was born on December 31 of the same year.”
Ala and Sara’s mother says: “We had no plan to have a new child, but God decided that Sara would come to help Ala.”
Regarding the start of the cord blood transplant from Sara to her sister, the mother said: “Sara’s HLA genetic match tests were done immediately after birth, and exactly twenty days later, the Royan Cord Blood Bank informed us. A Royan blood bank expert contacted me and said that Ala’s and Sara’s cord blood were a complete match. We felt a very special emotion. It was unbelievable. We had been told there was only a 25 percent chance of genetic compatibility between the sisters. It was our only hope, but we could not believe God would arrange it so beautifully. I performed a gratitude prostration and offered a prayer of thanks.”
The mother says: “My two children looked different in appearance. We never thought they would be completely compatible genetically.”
Doctors Emphasized Preserving Cord Blood
Ala’s mother says: “Every time we went for chemotherapy, the doctor always emphasized that the cord blood of the new child must be preserved.”
She added: “The Yazd branch office cooperated greatly with us and followed up extensively until the test results came.”
Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplant from Sister to Sister
Ala’s father describing the treatment process says: “Dr. Amir Ali Hamidiyeh, Ala’s treating physician, was happy when he saw the HLA test results and said, ‘This is good.’ It was a very special moment.”
Regarding the treatment timeline, he said: “On May 17, 2022, Sara’s cord blood stem cells were transplanted to Ala, and on June 6, 2022, my daughter was discharged. Her white blood cells gradually increased.”
High-Quality Cord Blood Sample Storage Helps Treatment
Dr. Morteza Zarabi, CEO of the Royan Cord Blood Bank, said about treatment with cord blood stem cells: “For treatment with cord blood stem cells, a very important chain works together. The blood collection specialist must carefully extract the blood from the umbilical cord to obtain the maximum volume without contamination. The samples must be safely transported to the cord blood bank laboratory, maintaining the cold chain, and reach the Royan laboratory in Tehran as quickly as possible. Cord blood processing specialists skillfully extract stem cells from the cord blood. Finally, the sample is prepared for storage and transplant. The Royan Cord Blood Bank stores cord blood samples with the highest quality so that, if necessary, they can be made available to treating physicians.”
He added: “The cooperation of this chain allows the health of Ala and other patients in need of transplants to be achieved. God places trials and experiences together for us, which certainly helps us appreciate life more.”