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Air Force Navigator D received a message: "You are the only one in the world capable of saving a two year old baby abroad" * The bone marrow harvesting date was set for yesterday * D: "It was clear to me and my commanders that this takes precedence over everything else"
 During the first days of the war up north, D., an F-16 Air Force Navigator, was busy with operational sorties aimed at defending the settlements of the Galilee. He took a one day break from the national war yesterday in order to help in a private war battle for the life of a two year old baby living abroad who contracted a violent form of cancer - and made a bone marrow donation for her.
This morning, with the sick baby celebrating her second birthday, she will be given the valuable transfusion required to save her life and Navigator D. will return to his Air Force activities. "I am happy that I can give her this gift and I pray for her recovery", he says.
D., 32 years old, serves as a combat navigator at the F-16 platoon in Hatzor. A few years ago he gave a blood sample as part of a special campaign for locating bone marrow donors in the IDF, sponsored by Ezer Mizion, which runs Israel's national bone marrow donor registry. A few months ago, D. receive a call from Ofra Konikoff, Ezer Mizion's Chief Transplant Coordinator, who told him that he is the only person in the world that matches a baby with leukemia (blood cancer), whose life is in danger.
"We received an urgent search request for a donor for a baby with acute leukemia and, to our joy, we found that D's tissue classification matches hers", sad Dr. Bracha Zisser yesterday, Director of the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registry and Ezer Mizion's Guest Home for children with cancer. "The chance of finding such a donor among people who are not family members is very low, and many of the patients are left without an satisfactory solution. When we turned to D and asked for his help, he did not hesitate for a moment and immediately agreed".
"I didn't even know what it was about", D told us yesterday, "because my medical savvy is limited to what I saw on TV in "E.R.", but right from the first conversation, I understood that this match is very rare and that it is a very important deed".
 Over the following weeks, D underwent a series of tests that confirmed that his genetic profile matches that of the sick baby, whose identity he does not know because of medical ethics protocol, which stipulate that the identity of the donor and recipient must be kept in confidence until one year after the transplant.
Since the donation must be precisely coordinated with the transplantation date, D. was scheduled to report to the Schneider Medical Center in Petach Tikva and undergo the required treatment on Wednesday of this week, i.e. yesterday.
However, one week prior to the planned donation date, as the war in the north began, D. was called to his platoon and he took an active part in a number of offensive sorties in Lebanese skies. When Ezer Mizion called him to confirm his planned arrival as they had previously arranged, D. told them that he does not intend to give up. "It was clear to me and my commanders that no matter what would happen on the same day - this takes precedence over everything else", says D.
In preparation of the transplant, the baby underwent aggressive treatments last week to destroy her diseased bone marrow. Yesterday, D. took a one day break from army duty and reported to the operating room of the Schneider Hospital, where, under full anesthesia, a liter of bone marrow was extracted from his hip bone, containing the priceless stem cells required to save the life of the sick baby. The precious stem cell donation was flown abroad that night, where the sick baby and her family were anxiously waiting.
This morning, the donated stem cells will be transfused in the baby's blood, with the hope that it will be accepted and will begin generating new and cancer free blood cells in her body. Over the next three weeks, she will be kept in isolation at the medical center abroad where she is being treated. Only then will her doctors be able to determine whether her system has accepted the bone marrow. Dr. Itzhak Yaniv, Head of Pediatric Oncology at Schneider, believes that her chances of recovery are good.
D. was released to his home later in the afternoon. He will avoid flying in the upcoming days, until the aviation physician determines that he is once again fit to fly. Until then he will contribute his share to the corps in the operational command.
"I am happy that I could give her such a gift", he said yesterday after the procedure. "I am privileged to be the only one who can help save the life of this child. For me, this is a kind of a miracle. I want to send her and her parents my heartfelt wishes that this transplant will succeed, that this process will make her healthy and that her second birthday will be the day on which her life will change for the better.
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Another life saved - almost
Air Force Navigator Leaves War to Donate Stem Cells Saving Babys' Life | 
