Georgia doctor desperately searching for bone marrow donor
- Pregnant model stuns social media again with baby bump photo
- Tacos at your door, Taco Bell to test delivery
- Sabra issues nationwide recall for hummus products
- Meet the girl who is allergic to water
- Shocking video shows S.C. cop fatally shooting black man in back
Colleagues of a beloved Cobb County doctor who is battling stage-four blood cancer are begging for the public's help in an attempt to save his life.
Dr. William DaBlah, 44, worked at Wellstar Cobb Hospital in Austell. He has two children and family in metro Atlanta. In September, he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer in an advanced stage. DaBlah quickly went from treating patients to becoming one himself.
"It's a very aggressive type of cancer," said Elizabeth Stubbs, who worked alongside DaBlah in the hospital's anesthesia department.
Friday, DaBlah and his family were in New York for specialized chemotherapy treatments. However, Stubbs said the key to his survival lies in finding a matching bone marrow donor.
"He has been given only a few months to live without this bone marrow transplant," Stubbs said.
But even after checking family members and searching a nationwide database, a potential match has not been found.
"We felt compelled that we needed to do something to help our colleague and our friend," said Dr. Tod Rubin, who also worked with DaBlah at the Cobb Hospital. Rubin said he's working to spread the word about DaBlah's situation and the need for bone marrow donors in general.
"His mother being Haitian and his father from Ghana and the fact of the matter is African-American communities are underrepresented in these databanks," Rubin said.
Genetics play a key role in determining compatibility of bone marrow donors.
"So, it's unlikely that someone without that representation in their genetic makeup would be a match for him," Stubbs said.
DaBlah's colleagues have rallied around him and in a final attempt to save his life. They are begging potential matches compelled by his story to come forward. Bone marrow donation is typically an outpatient procedure that can be completed in one day.
"Your part is to represent your genetic makeup and help mankind," Stubbs said.
They've organized a bone marrow drive with hopes of helping DaBlah and others in need of transplants from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Interested people ages 18 to 44 are asked to come to the clubhouse at the apartment complex at 2115 Piedmont Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30324. Mouth swabbing to collect DNA takes only a few minutes and allows volunteers to add your information to the database. More information about that database is available at: www.bethematch.org .
"Even if we don't find a match for Dr. Dablah, there will certainly be other patients who could potentially benefit from an unknown donor out there," Rubin said.
