STEM CELL DONOR A brother gives help to a brother

Family members were told the odds were against anyone being a donor match.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- When he stepped off the plane for what was supposed to be a visit with his brother in Seattle, Josh Vigorito had no clue he'd be spending the next few days in the hospital himself.
But for four days at the end of June, the 17-year-old Niles McKinley High School senior left his hotel room and walked up the hill to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Each visit he was given thorough physical exams, gave blood samples and received shots in his stomach twice a day to stimulate his body's production of stem cells.
"It was no big deal really," the teenager said. "I knew anyone in my family would have done the same thing for me, so I was going to do it for anyone who needed it."
Who needed it was Matthew, Josh's 30-year-old brother, who lives in Denver. Matthew was diagnosed at the end of March with acute myelogenous leukemia, a condition where his body does not produce enough healthy blood cells.
Close call
The condition progresses quickly, and doctors told Matthew he had probably only had the disease for about four or five weeks. Had he not been diagnosed when he was, it could have been fatal within another two or three weeks.
Matthew immediately transferred to the Seattle hospital, where he started chemotherapy and radiation treatments, explained his sister, Lyda Vigorito-Davis of Niles.
But, she said, the family was told his best chance of beating the disease was to receive a stem cell transplant. All of the Vigorito children -- 37-year-old Chuck; Lyda, 32; Danny, 27; Nathan, 25; Lisa, 22; and Josh -- were tested as possible matches, but were also warned the odds weren't in their favor.
"They told us all we would be lucky if anyone matched," Lyda said. "We were hoping out of six of us, we could at least get one."
In the end, three siblings -- Lyda, Nathan and Josh -- were a match. Since doctors wanted to use stem cells from the same sex, Lyda was ruled out. Nathan was the first choice, but a minor infection took him out of the running.
It was up to Josh.
"Even the day I left for Seattle, I still thought Nathan was going to do it," he said. "When I got there they said they needed me."
Enduring the process
Josh explained the only real pain he suffered was minor aches in his bones and joints; the shots that stimulated stem cell production also increased the size of his bones.
"I just felt like I had done some really heavy lifting," he said.
Some more discomfort came when medical personnel actually harvested his stem cells by hooking him up to two intravenous tubes that ran from one arm to a machine and back into his other arm. As his blood left his body, the machine separated the stem cells -- which Josh said resembled tiny white bubbles the size of a pin head -- into a bag. His blood was then pumped back into his body.
"I was hooked up to the machine for about two hours, and they told me all of my blood probably passed through that machine three or four times," he said. "Sometimes it would get clogged, and the needle would tug on my arm. They would just turn the machine off for a minute or two and then start it again."
Matthew's status
The day after Josh's stem cells were harvested, they were implanted into Matthew's bone marrow. Lyda and Josh said Matthew suffered a mild reaction to the transplant, which doctors said is relatively normal. He had a mild fever, but antibiotics and steroids helped Matthew fight the infection.
Since the transplant, Matthew remains in remission, his brother and sister said.
"They are still monitoring him, and haven't actually declared him cancer-free yet, but he is doing well enough that they gave him permission to come home," Lyda said.
Matthew will arrive back in Niles this weekend, just in time for his sister Lisa's wedding.
While the family is encouraged by Matthew's progress, they are aware there's still a chance he might need a transplant again, Josh said. If it's needed, Josh said he's ready to donate again.
"I didn't even have to think about it last time, so if he needed it again, I wouldn't think about it then either," he said. "I would just do it."
slshaulis@vindy.com