Patti Larsen
Stuart Grossman
Charles Bombet II
Jack M. Williams

Responding to a call for help, Charles Bombet II, Baton Rouge Office, donates his own bone marrow to save the life of a man he's never met.

One-and-a-half years ago, New York Life agent Charles Bombet was surfing America Online when he clicked onto the Jewish Forum Bulletin Board. Inside was a plea for help. A mother of three was dying from leukemia and needed a transplant of bone marrow — the organ responsible for the body's immune system. Her neighbor had posted the message in a last-ditch effort to save her friend's life. A father of three himself, Bombet confides, "I had just seen a transplant story on 20/20 and was considering registering as a donor." When he found out that the most likely match outside of a family member is within one's own ethnic group, this 33-year-old felt compelled to act. This nine-year veteran explains, "I'm Jewish, and even though the chances of matching were one in millions, I just couldn't sit back and do nothing."

Taking Action
Bombet dialed the 800 number at the bottom of his computer screen. An operator at Heart of America, an affiliate of the www.marrow.org National Bone Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), explained the procedure: he takes a $50 blood test whose results are entered into a national databank which links up donors to recipients. If there is a match, he undergoes surgery (at no cost to him) in which 10 percent of his bone marrow is removed (it grows back in a few weeks).

The Call
In the following months, Bombet went back to his old routine — selling life insurance to health care professionals. "I didn't give the NMDP another thought," he claims. That is until May, when they called him to say they found an identical match — not the mother of three, but a 44-year-old leukemia patient. "Several weeks later, after another blood test confirmed the match, I got the green light," he says. "I was being asked to donate bone marrow." When asked how he could spare the time from his job and family, he posed the challenge, "If someone said you might save a life if you took a little time off, you'd find the time. Besides, the stakes are so high."

Getting Ready
For the next few weeks, Bombet prepared for the surgery by taking iron supplements and banking two units of his own blood. Late in May, the evening before the operation, he and his wife traveled to a nearby donor center, where they were provided with a hotel room. Early the next morning, Bombet received spinal anesthesia, and the doctor extracted approximately one liter of bone marrow from his hip. "Although Charles wasn't worried, I was concerned," confides his wife, who changed her mind when an NMDP representative with an ice cooler sat down on the other end of the couch in the hospital's waiting room. "I knew she was there to pick up Charles' bone marrow. All of a sudden, I realized just how much he was touching another person's life. And that made me proud."

Thinking Back
In the recovery room two hours later, Bombet felt "sore, as if I'd played basketball with my son and fell on my hip." In fact, he walked out of the hospital that same day. He hopes the recipient, whose identity is confidential, will make it — survival rates are in the 40 to 60 percent range. "People who know about the surgery still come up to me and say, 'You really gave that guy a gift.' But I tell them he gave me a gift. We're in the business of affecting people's lives," says Bombet. "What a wonderful feeling to know I've given a man the hope of many more years with his loved ones."

"Giving back gives me something extra in my life," adds this former Kiwanian, who now serves on the board of his local Jewish Federation. "You think I'd get used to helping people by now. But I still get a rush whenever I have the opportunity to make a difference."

The NMDP can be reached at 800-MARROW-2.

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