The nation’s 3,000th bone marrow donor Kim Ji-in (center) poses for a photo with Hwang Tai-ju (left), president of Korea Marrow Donor Program, and Lee Hong-ki, a hematology doctor at Konkuk University Medical Center. (Yonhap News)
A local university student has become the 3,000th bone marrow donor in the country.
Kim Ji-in, 21, a police administration major at Dongshin University, recently donated bone marrow to a child ill with leukemia, and became the 3,000th bone marrow donor in the country, according to Korea Marrow Donor Program last week.
“I didn’t have enough preparation time because I was about to take the police recruitment exam, but I couldn’t delay the help a child needs desperately from me,” said Kim.
Her decision came after she found out her bone marrow matched with a child with leukemia. She had registered as an bone marrow donation aspirant during a bone marrow donation campaign held on campus in June 2010.
In 1996, U.S. Air Force cadet Brian Bauman, an adopted Korean suffering from chronic myelogenous leukemia, made headlines when he received a bone marrow transplant from Seo Han-guk, then a South Korean army sergeant of no relation.
The nationwide campaign to help Bauman resulted in a flurry of new donors for transplants at the time.
By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)