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Friday, October 10, 2008
Geetha Lakshmi
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Sagar Seeks Your Help - Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sagar is going through another bone marrow transplant after his first one failed & his AML relapsed, in little over two years. ..Weeks before he fought his way back into academics after defeating cancer in the first round. He is positive and is looking at a hard trial. He seeks our support once again.

 read more ...
Rakshabandan - Tuesday, August 28, 2007

My first Rakshabandan without Geetha. A sacred thread that reminds a brother to protect his sister.I failed to keep my promise. It hurts to know that I will never get one from now on.

Aditya lost his fight to cancer too http://adityak02.googlepages.com/latestupdates even as we struggle to help others in this fight.

 
July 29 2007 - Arangal Durugam - India - Sunday, July 29, 2007

Geetha was creamated on 26th at about 12:30 in our small village. She had loved the village and worked hard for its development. The whole village had donated blood and platellets and  granulocytes for her entrire treatment and all others in the same ward as hers as much as possible. See updates for more details.
I am bringing my parents with me to Charlotte on Aug 9th.

 
July 24 2007 - 8:45AM ( EST) - Tuesday, July 24, 2007

8:45 AM EST: Geetha passed away at 5:15 AM (EST)   -  3:15 PM   IST on July 24th. I have nothing to say......Can't belive it still. Just got up talking to her in my dreams.. it felt so real.

2:09 AM EST: :Today the Infection has spread to both the lungs and the doctors have announced her to be in critical condition again. Another number '24 hrs' is what they have given us now as her expected survival time.
We need a miracle quick... Geetha is still in the ICU under a ventilator.
Dad called me home immediately.. I am flying at 16:30 EST reaching Chennai at 11:45 PM on 25th July. I will be seeing her around 4 AM on 26th July.

Read Updates for more details.

 


Save Geetha

Geetha (Geethalakshmi Varadarajan) iswas 33 years old and is was suffering from Acute Myloid Leukemia (AML).

Geetha at HospitalGeetha was diagnosed in March 2007 and has been undergoing intensive chemotherapy in Chritian Medical College, Vellore India. On June 23rd we were informend by the doctors that the cancer stopped responding to the chemotherapy and that she needs an immediate Bone Marrow transplant. India does not have the facility to do a MUD Transplant. Her doctor has recommended that we take her for a transplant abroad.

Geetha is in need of a bone marrow transplant within the next 30-40 days.Her family is trying every means to raise the money needed for the same. The quotes and estimates are around USD $750,000 for the treatment in US. She needs a transplant by August 1st week 2007.
We are seeking your help to contribute whatever you can and spread the word to save Geetha's life.


How It All Happened

 It’s surprising how someone's life can change so quickly and shatter the world around them. I’m at a point where I can feel this personally.

It had been almost 3 years since I had last seen my sister when I visited India this year in January of 2007. Our visit was very special for our family as my wife and I were about to have our First baby and Geetha had helped us keep it a secret and  announced  it to everyone when we landed. Geetha was so excited that we were going to have a baby soon.  We had a great tradioinal baby shower organized by her in our little village near Ambur ( Arangal Durugam). We returned end of Jan back to our work here.

Then in March, she started having sporadic fever and breathlessness combined with continued fatigue. When the local doctors could not diagnose the cause of the fever, he referred her to Apollo Hospital, Chennai.

After undergoing various tests for a week and finding nothing the doctors recommended a Bone Marrow test which turned Positive for AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). She was then transferred to Cancer Specialists in CMC (Christian Medical Center, Vellore).  I visited her in April just after her first chemo and saw her in the hospital  in a status that no brother could ever dream of. Geetha is there now -- a cancer patient.. since then.


About My Sister

Geethalakshmi V. (BA, MA, MPhil, MBA), is 33 years of age and the only daughter to my parents. She is married and a proud parent of a 4 year old daughter Harsha. Her hushand Kadhirvelan, works as a Marketing executive with a reputable company in India. Geetha used to work as partime History lecturer at colleges in Tiruchi, Tamil nadu. 


My Parents

 Father : Mr. Varadarajan P (Ex Serviceman, Retd SBI).

Mother, Santhi Rajan(Housewife).


About AML

 Tutorial video

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a fast growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. In AML, the bone marrow makes many immature cells called blasts. Blasts normally develop into white blood cells that fight infection. However, the blasts are abnormal in AML. They do not develop and cannot fight infections. The bone marrow may also make abnormal red blood cells and platelets. The number of abnormal cells ( or leukemia cells) grow quickly. They crowd out the normal red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets the body needs.

         


CMC Treatment
Geetha was started on Induction Chemo begining of April. She was administered Chemo for 10 days continuously. Eleven days after she started the treatment, the bone marrow revealed no identifiable cancer cells with intermediate cytogenetics. The doctors suggested a sibling marrow transplant if available. Alternatively, three further rounds of consolidations Chemo followed by autologous transplant.
 
Unfortunately, she did not have a match in either myself (her only sibling) or our parents. Meanwhile another bone marrow test revealed that cancer cells were back (at 14%). The doctors started the alternative approach and administered the next round of chemo.
 
On June 23rd, the follow-up bone marrow test revealed a 83% blasts cells, and the chemo was determined to be totally ineffective.


Latest Updates

Updates - Geetha's Status & us

Medical Records - CMC & Apollo

A page listing out the donors coming soon. Thanks to all those who have already donated.


Where We Stand Now

On June 23rd, the doctors declared her AML to be uncontrollable with chemo therapy and deemed her with a diagnosed case of Refractory Acute myeloid Leukaemia and declared the only treatment option now is to undergo Allogenic Peripheral Blood Stem cell Transplantation (PBSCT).

As she does not have an HLA matching sibling donor, the best option is to go for Matched Unrelated Donor (MUD) transplantation. MUD is not done in India, and her only chance to survive is to look for a match and treatment in a hospital abroad.

I work in Charlotte , NC as a software professional. She has more options of having a transplant in USA in case of a MUD match or even otherwise with my(her only brother's) stem cells which were a 50% match in the intial tests and is being tested further for this or hopefully the cord blood cells from our new born.

Currently with her condition & lack of time to identify a donor the doctors are recommending a double cord blood tansplantation as soon as possible or a Haplo identically mismatched donor marrow transplant ( Me or my parents). Many hospitals need a proof of remission to accept her and we are waiting to see where the AML stands in her next bone marrow test.


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