Family member donating bone marrow to 5-year-old sibling after 4 years of searching for donor

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — After four years of searching for a bone marrow donor, a Richmond family will finally get the procedure needed to cure their son’s sickle cell anemia.

Five-year-old Zion Ortiz, who suffers from a severe case of sickle cell anemia, will be undergoing a bone marrow transplant in September, and his half sister will be his donor.

Ortiz’s mother, Taniqua Bates, said a swab test in April revealed Zion’s sister, who they’ve chosen to keep anonymous, was a haploidentical match.

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According to experts, there are three kinds of matches:

1. Full Match – A donor has all the same Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) markers as you. It’s the best match but also the hardest to find.
2. Partial Match – A donor has most of the same HLA markers as you. Thanks to medical advances, this kind of match can still work well for many people.
3. Haploidentical (Haplo) Match – A donor has about half the same HLA markers as you. This kind of match is often found in family members like a parent or child.

“Once we learned that she had the genetic markers, we kind of had that conversation with her,” Bates said of Ortiz’s half-sister. “She said, ‘Yes, I'm going to do this,’ no questions asked."

Zion Ortiz of Richmond, who is battling sickle cell. (Photos courtesy of Zion's family.)

Zion Ortiz of Richmond, who is battling sickle cell. (Photos courtesy of Zion's family.)

“She must do some testing, some pretesting, then, he'll start like chemo and infusions. It just comes with a lot of mixed emotions,” Bates said.

Ortiz will begin a series of chemotherapy sessions starting in July. Bates said she's grateful.

“We're overjoyed,” Bates said. “This is the moment that we've been waiting for since Zion was eight months old. We knew that this was in our deck of cards, and we're just rolling with it.”