Texas Cord Blood Bank Honors Women’s Hospital at Renaissance for Cord Blood Collections: Donations at Hospital Have Resulted in 46 Lifesaving Stem Cell Transplants
Edinburg, Texas (PRWEB) April 28, 2017 -- The Texas Cord Blood Bank (TCBB), a program of nonprofit biomedical organization GenCure, presented a plaque in recently to the labor and delivery team at Women’s Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg for their outstanding efforts in collecting umbilical cord blood donations from generous mothers who give birth at the hospital and decide to donate.
“Women’s Hospital at Renaissance has been a collection partner for the TCBB since 2008, and their cord blood collections have resulted in a total of 46 matches for transplant,” said Rogelio Zamilpa, director of the TCBB and of the cord blood program at GenCure.
“The Women’s Hospital at Renaissance is proud to be a collection partner for the Texas Cord Blood Bank. Every one of our moms who donates cord blood possibly is making a difference for someone who can benefit from a transplant,” said Dr. Robert Martinez, chief medical officer/chief physician executive at Women’s Hospital.
Umbilical cord blood is rich in blood-forming stem cells, and though it’s normally discarded, moms can choose to donate their newborns’ umbilical cord blood after healthy births through the TCBB. Umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants are the last hope after other treatments have failed for hundreds of Texas patients living with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood disorders. The TCBB partners with National Marrow Donor Program’s Be The Match® to add cord blood donations to the national registry for patients searching for bone marrow and cord blood matches.
Zamilpa gave a presentation to the Women’s Hospital staff about cord blood banking and its clinical applications. After, he presented the staff with a plaque recognizing the contributions they’ve made to the TCBB.
“The team’s efforts as well as those of the moms in the Rio Grande Valley who donate cord blood are helping us fulfil our mission to save and enhance lives,” Zamilpa said.
Because the biological markers used in matching donors to recipients are inherited, patients are more likely to match someone from their own race or ethnicity. Adding more donors from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds to the registry increases the likelihood all patients will find the match they need.
“We’ve had 46 matches come from our hospital so far, and we hope to make that so many more with the help of our selfless moms,” Dr. Martinez said.
Dr. Efraim Vela, chief of the Women’s Services Department at Women’s Hospital at Renaissance, will receive the plaque. For more information about donating cord blood, contact Janet Welch or Ruby Poy, Women’s Hospital cord blood program coordinators, at 956-362-4037.
About the Texas Cord Blood Bank: The Texas Cord Blood Bank (TCBB), a program of GenCure, is a state-established public bank that collects cord blood units for the purpose of saving and enhancing lives. Since 2005, it has partnered with hospitals across the state to collect and store thousands of cord blood units from generous Texas mothers to create a unique statewide source of ethnically diverse, lifesaving cord blood units. Learn more at GenCure.org.
Julie Ann Vera, South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, http://www.southtexasblood.org, +1 210-249-4449, [email protected]
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