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 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jon-lapook/umbilical-cord-blood-save_b_616113.html)