Doctors urge Indians in America to register as stem cell donors to help save lives

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Leading physicians of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, are urging people of Indian origin in the US to register as stem cell donors because it could save lives of members of this community.

ITV Gold recently interviewed two specialists playing a key part in AAPI’s nationwide drive to register donors, Dr. Sashi Kuppala, at Trinity Health’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in Minot, North Dakota; and emergency medicine specialist Dr. Krishan Kumar, director of pediatric emergency at Nassau University Medical Center, New York.

Taking to ITV Gold, Dr. Kuppala noted that there is a huge backlog for availability of stem cells for Indians, and that patients of Indian origin are dying because of lack of stem cells.

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“The biggest problem is there are not a lot of Indian donors. Every family who has someone between 18 and 40 years of age, should register. We have a moral responsibility. Imagine the burden on a family already dealing with cancer, to be trying to procure the stem cells,” Dr. Kuppala said.

These are the reasons why AAPI has taken up a nationwide drive – first ever national drive among Indians. “Please cooperate. You don’t have to be a citizen to do it. Please register as a donor,” Dr. Kuppala urged.

Dr. Kumar echoed the same views during his interview with ITV Gold. He also noted how stem cells can recreate any cell in the body. It is so easy to do become a donor, Dr. Kumar said. “We are asking for you to donate your stem cells to save the life of somebody else. We need to have a pool of donors. It has to be matched – and just a cheek swab would do it. The bigger the pool of stem cells, the better the chances of a match,” Dr. Kumar emphasized. “They take some blood out of your body, filter out the stem cells, and put back the blood in your body. You feel good that you have done something good,” he said, noting that Dr. Kuppala is the main driver of the stem cell initiative among Indians.

Donating stem cells is even easier than donating blood, Dr. Kuppala noted. Register as a donor, and you are sent a package to take a cheek swab and send it back. That swab is processed and the details banked so that one can be called upon when a match is needed for a patient.

The actual donation process requires about 3 to 4 mls of blood to be drawn and then stem cells filtered out of it and the blood is put back in the donor’s body. “Nobody is going to put the donor in danger. Their body will grow back the stem cells,” Dr. Kuppala said.

Stem cell treatment is cutting edge and extremely important for cancer and non-cancer patients. Stem cells have the potential to become/replace any cell in the body

For example if a cancer patient’s cells are wiped out, those stem cells can be key; they have to be procured from other human beings. Unlike blood types, stem cells need to be matched with similar race ethnicity – Indian patients would have a higher probability of reacting positively to stem cells from another Indian, Dr. Kuppala noted.

Dr. Kuppala also dwelt on his inspiration for becoming a neonatology and general pediatrics specialist. A graduate from Rangaraya Medical College, he did his pediatric residency at Cleveland Clinic, and completed his neonatology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Describing his job as very gratifying when one works with babies that have a lower shot at survival, because any of them could grow up to even be a President, Dr. Kuppala said. He has been a leader in use of anti-biotics in neonatal babies, as well as in treating Neaonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

Dr. Kumar graduated from medical school in India in 1977 and emigrated to the US in 1984. He joined Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, NY as a resident, and soon became associate director of emergency medicine in 1988. He joined Nassau University Medical Center in 1990 as an attending in the department of emergency medicine/pediatrics. Besides mentoring young physicians in their residency training, he is an associate professor of pediatrics at State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has published several papers in emergency medicine and works and teaches at all levels of emergency care.

During the interview, Dr. Kumar also spoke of how he was inspired to work in emergency and pediatric medicine, the need for India to further develop its emergency response system, which AAPI is helping to realize. He called for an all-India code like 911, which every individual can remember.

He also discussed advances in treatment such as the use of robots and AI for detecting and diagnosing medical problems. “The human body is amazing,” Dr. Kumar said, and there is much more to learn in medicine, he indicated.

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