San Antonio veteran, transplant recipient pushes for more bone marrow donors

Kenneth Raimondi created a film about the great need for bone marrow donors

SAN ANTONIO – For many people with blood or bone marrow diseases, the only chance for recovery is a transplant. A San Antonio Air Force veteran knows that firsthand. 

Right after high school, Kenneth Raimondi joined the Air Force.

"I was a helicopter crew chief, and a recruiter, but my main passion was telling stories," he said.

He was an Air Force broadcaster until 2012, when he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. 

"Aplastic anemia is bone marrow failure. Basically means your marrow stops producing the cells you need to survive," Raimondi said.

Treatments didn't work and none of his siblings were a match.

"I couldn't play with my kids, I couldn't go out with my wife. I was stuck in my house scared to death a sniffle or a cough was going to kill me," he said.

So he went on the national transplant list.

"Thankfully there was a match on the bone marrow registry and the most important part of that is when the match was called to give, he stepped up and he gave," Raimondi explained. 

Be the Match reports only about 2 percent of Americans are on the national bone marrow registry. The Gencure Marrow Donation Program out of San Antonio reports when people on that list become a match almost 70 percent refuse to donate.  

Patients are most likely to match with someone who is the same race or ethnicity, which is why it's so important to have a diverse range of donors on the registry.

Raimondi was lucky to find a match who agreed to donate. Marrow from Raimondi's donor Cameron was removed from his hip, and transplanted into Raimondi. The donor's bone marrow then regenerates. 

"About 25 percent of donors give actual marrow. It's an outpatient procedure, where they numb you up, knock you out, and take the marrow from your hip," Raimondi said. "My donor said it was only about three days until he felt better, a week until he felt 100 percent again."

The majority, about 75 percent of donors, don't need surgery. They just donate peripheral blood stem cells. 

"Basically they hook you up to a machine, you sit there for like five to seven hours, and they take blood from you, the take the stem cells out, and they return the healthy blood back. It's not painful. It's just a little uncomfortable because you're there for so long," Raimondi said.

He said many people have misconceptions about donating, don't agree to donate it if they're called, or don't join the registry at all.

"Now that's a lifelong passion for me to get the word out and let people know that you could very well be the cure."

Raimondi recently wrote and directed a short film called “Her Unlikely Kin.”

"It tells a story about a young girl who is in need of a bone marrow match but her only match on the bone marrow registry is a veteran struggling with PTSD," Raimondi explained.

The film combines his knowledge of veteran’s issues with his mission to explain the need for bone marrow donors. 

"There's no reason I'm here except I happened to have a match who happened to follow through," he said. "So if you do join the registry, please follow through if you ever do get that call because there is a human life on the other side that needs you." 

“Her Unlikely Kin” has already played at prestigious film festivals all over the nation.

"We premiered at the Gasparilla Film Festival in Tampa which is one of the top 50 film festivals in the country. We also played at World Fest right here in Houston. We played the GI Film Festival out in Washington, D.C."

Now, the film is headed to the San Antonio Film Festival Saturday. It will play during the short seven block at 9 p.m. The lead actor in the film is Nick Stevenson, who was in the first two seasons of the TV show “Orange is the New Black.” He will be at the screening Saturday.

All someone needs to do to become a blood marrow donor is a cheek swab. Anyone interested should head to www.bethematch.org to get a kit sent home. Then once the cheek swab is done, the kit is sent back and that person is added to the registry list.


About the Author:

Courtney Friedman anchors KSAT’s weekend evening shows and reports during the week. Her ongoing Loving in Fear series confronts Bexar County’s domestic violence epidemic. She joined KSAT in 2014 and is proud to call the SA and South Texas community home. She came to San Antonio from KYTX CBS 19 in Tyler, where she also anchored & reported.