Umbilical Cord Blood: Save It and Save Lives

Started by NewsCaster, Jun 17, 2010, 08:03 PM

NewsCaster

Imagine throwing a lifesaving treatment in the garbage. That's exactly what happens in the United States over ten thousand times a day because we do not routinely offer to collect precious umbilical cord blood at the time of birth. Thousands of Americans --many of them children -- needlessly die annually because they cannot find either a bone marrow or umbilical cord blood match to help treat conditions like lymphoma and leukemia. 

It's estimated that about 10,000 patients die while waiting for a transplant each year.  Yet umbilical blood is discarded as medical waste in the vast majority of the more than four million births occurring each year.

Umbilical Cord Blood: Save It and Save Lives