On March 9, 2016, seven years after she had joined ABMDR, Maria, a 36 years old nurse in Yerevan and mother of two: Alex, 15 and Knarik, 18 months old, donated her bone marrow stem cells to save the life of a patient in Israel.
Maria’s stem cells were harvested in ABMDR’s Harvesting Center in Yerevan by Dr. Andranik Mshetshyan, and flown through a special courier to the Bone Marrow Transplant Department in Hadassah Medical Center in Israel.
Present at Maria’s harvesting procedure were ABMDR Executive Director Dr. Sevak Avagyan and Medical Director Dr. Mihran Nazaretyan, as well as Dr. Bella Kocharian, former First Lady of Armenia, who was ABMDR’s very first registered bone marrow donor when the organization was established in 1999.
“We Armenians are a Mediterranean people, and, as such, share our genes with peoples throughout the region, whether they be Jews, Greeks, Italians, or Ethiopians,” Dr. Avagyan said. “Today we are absolutely delighted that the life of a patient in Israel is poised to be saved through an Armenian bone marrow donor. Nothing can be more gratifying!”
