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Article: The risk she took, the life she saved. (Tricia Matthews, bone marrow donor: includes a related article on storing a baby's umbilical stem blood for possible future use as a marrow match)
- Article from:
- Redbook
- Article date:
- October 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NERVOUSLY, TRICIA MATTHEWS LOOKED AT THE VIALS A technician had placed on the cabinet near the examining table where she was sitting. There were at least 12, maybe 15. How much blood were they going to draw? the 38-year-old actress wondered. What else was she going to face this morning?
In fact, she faced hours of tests: for AIDS, hepatitis, pregnancy, herpes. She also underwent a chest x-ray and a thorough physical exam. In all, Tricia spent five hours at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, that day and ultimately had dozens of vials of blood drawn. Ironically, Tricia had always avoided doctors out of a morbid fear that she'd go in for a ...