Bone marrow transplant saves life of Murphys mother battling leukemia
A woman in Calaveras County has had a wild year of both diagnosis and cure.
"I was sick for two weeks and I finally went to emergency and they ran some blood work and it turned out I had leukemia,” leukemia survivor Cory Severud said. "They gave me two units of blood and sent me to Stanford that night."
The path to beating leukemia for Cory, a Murphys mother of two small girls, began with a 37-day stay at Stanford.
The odds were not very good — about 2%, she said.
That chance of survival for Cory to live could be extended with blood transfusions and chemotherapy.
"We were scheduled to go back in January for a third round of chemo to keep the leukemia at bay until they could find a best donor," said Diane Severud, Cory’s mother.
But that third round wasn't necessary. An international bone marrow group found Cory a 100% match in Europe.
"It was a crazy day," Cory said.
Cory was infused with the donor’s blood and marrow.
"It was cool. My nurses would shine the flashlight through the tube and you could see the bone marrow cells as they were going in," Cory said.
"All my cells in me are all new. All new blood type. It’s crazy. I feel amazing," she said.
Cory beat leukemia in less than a year from diagnosis with the help of someone from halfway around the world, and now she wants to help the group that found her donor in making more matches.
"I never thought that it could happen to me and being so young and having so much to look forward to still, and kind of have that taken away from you is kind of a lot. I want people to know that it’s out there and you can help somebody by being a donor," Cory said.