Mississippi State student makes a gift of life and would do it again

When he wandered into a bone marrow registration drive last year, Mississippi State student Ronald Wilburn had no idea what lay ahead.

Within months, he was found to be a potential match for a 10-year-old with life-threatening aplastic anemia. Within a year, he underwent the first surgical procedure of his life to give the anonymous youngster a chance to live.

"I never thought I'd be called," admits Wilburn, a junior computer science major from Crawford. "Needles and I just don't get along."

Aplastic anemia results when the bone marrow fails to produce essential blood elements. Like Wilburn, the youngster facing the illness is African American, an ethnic group underrepresented in the national marrow registry.

Ninety-four African Americans have received unrelated transplants since the registry program began in 1987.

The Mid-South Regional Bone Marrow Donor Program in Memphis recruits volunteers from a number of Mississippi universities.

Nearly 1.7 million volunteers are registered. Nearly 3,500 transplants have resulted.

While a resident assistant at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science on the Mississippi University for Women campus, Wilburn decided to register when Delta Sigma Theta sorority held a donor drive.

Wilburn was told that the patient was a 10-year-old whose condition was worsening.

The hour-long procedure was performed shortly after fall classes began.

While the procedure requires less than a day in the hospital, pain, stiffness, and soreness are normal byproducts.

"I missed about two weeks of classes," Wilburn said.

Aware of his special situation, administrators in the university's College of Engineering worked to accommodate the absence.

"I'd do it again, even knowing what's involved," Wilburn said. "It's giving a little of yourself to help save someone. You can't put a price on a life."