Nurse donates stem cells to save 19-year-old

A 35-year-old nurse donated stem cells at Renji Hospital on Thursday in the hope of saving the life of a 19-year-old woman with leukemia.

It was the first stem cell donation conducted in the Pudong New Area and the 497th in the city.

Shi Xiaowei, a nurse from Changning District Mental Health Center, said she had donated blood for three years and joined the city’s stem cell donors bank last year, hoping that it could find a match and give her the chance to save a life. 

Shi said her uncle died of leukemia when she was in primary school. Witnessing his pain and suffering, Shi had always wanted to do her part for similar patients. Before her donation, Shi, who has a 9-year-old daughter, had to persuade her family that the procedure wouldn’t damage her health. 

“If I refused to donate, the young patient is likely to die and her parents will be in great pain. I can’t just stand by,” she said. Her daughter said she was proud of her mother and would be making a donation too when she was older.

Renji Hospital, which is affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Medicine, was approved to collect stem cells collection last month. It is the only approved stem cell facility in Pudong and the city’s third.

Patients can apply to the hospital to look for matched donors and have transplants, the hospital said.

Ti Gong